[HN Gopher] Unix Koans
___________________________________________________________________
Unix Koans
Author : nimbius
Score : 182 points
Date : 2023-05-06 03:40 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (prirai.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (prirai.github.io)
| gravypod wrote:
| Seems similar to this: http://www.mit.edu/~xela/tao.html
|
| Wish there was a hard copy. Would make a great goofy gift for
| coworkers.
| teddyh wrote:
| Hard copy of that page has ISBN 0-931137-07-1:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Programming
| thesuperbigfrog wrote:
| >> Wish there was a hard copy.
|
| Hard copy:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Profe...
|
| Soft copy:
|
| http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/
|
| http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/
|
| The original Unix koans are found in Appendix D:
| http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/unix_koans.html
|
| Additional Unix koans were added (and removed) over time:
| http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/
| quantum_state wrote:
| Nice!
| arendtio wrote:
| > "And how many hours would you require to implement and debug
| that C program?" asked Nubi.
|
| How about "How many hours would you require to write the shell
| script so that it handles all allowed file names appropriately?".
| As far as I am concerned the classes of errors are certainly
| different, but shell scripts have their own pitfalls.
|
| Just yesterday I came across a one-liner that didn't work as soon
| as the filename had a space in the filename.
| shhsshs wrote:
| Then you are not using enough quotes in your shell scripts.
| teddyh wrote:
| Most people know about quotes to handle spaces. The real
| trick is to handle file names which start with a hyphen.
|
| (And if you _really_ want to level up, write your scripts to
| handle file names with _embedded newlines_.)
| teddyh wrote:
| Real URL: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/
| DonHopkins wrote:
| [flagged]
| tasuki wrote:
| Why? The author might be a vile racist, but his site is the
| source for this collection. The link posted here just strips
| the editor's introduction[0] which I personally found
| valuable.
|
| [0]: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-
| koans/introduction.html
| microtherion wrote:
| Regardless of the merits of the material and its author, I
| think the primary site, if anything, should be used.
|
| If you find this valuable/entertaining enough to read then
| read it at the original URL.
|
| If you find the author vile and/or the material not worth
| the time, linking to a ripped off copy of it doesn't make
| things better.
| Fnoord wrote:
| Because of the paradox of tolerance, and because you might
| not wanna connect to an extremist's website. You could
| argue you don't wanna read their writings either but AFAICT
| the writing is solid.
| worthless-trash wrote:
| Why ?
|
| Are we living in a world now where if one part of someone
| sucks we assume that everything from that person is evil ?
|
| Is that how tribal we're going ?
| baremetal wrote:
| It seems only people who are loaded up on current buzzwords
| to be upset about are like that. On both sides.
|
| Well adjusted people are able to overlook an offense.
|
| "A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to
| overlook an offense." - Proverbs 19:11
| tarxvf wrote:
| ESR is explicitly anti-racist and always has been from what
| I've seen, so this is a very confusing post.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Well that's a bald faced lie.
|
| https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/816447812661551108
|
| https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/780839196231630848
|
| https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/1273510887463124992
|
| https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond#Political_bel
| i...
|
| Political beliefs and activism
|
| Raymond is a member of the Libertarian Party and a gun
| rights advocate.[24] He has endorsed the open source
| firearms organization Defense Distributed, calling them
| "friends of freedom" and writing "I approve of any
| development that makes it more difficult for governments
| and criminals to monopolize the use of force. As 3D
| printers become less expensive and more ubiquitous, this
| could be a major step in the right direction."[25][26]
|
| In 2015 Raymond accused the Ada Initiative and other women
| in tech groups of attempting to entrap male open source
| leaders and accuse them of rape, saying "Try to avoid even
| being alone, ever, because there is a chance that a 'women
| in tech' advocacy group is going to try to collect your
| scalp."[27][28]
|
| Raymond has claimed that "Gays experimented with unfettered
| promiscuity in the 1970s and got AIDS as a consequence",
| and that "Police who react to a random black male behaving
| suspiciously who might be in the critical age range as
| though he is an near-imminent lethal threat, are being
| rational, not racist."[29][30] A progressive campaign, "The
| Great Slate", was successful in raising funds for
| candidates in part by asking for contributions from tech
| workers in return for not posting similar quotes by
| Raymond. Matasano Security employee and Great Slate
| fundraiser Thomas Ptacek said, "I've been torturing Twitter
| with lurid Eric S. Raymond quotes for years. Every time I
| do, 20 people beg me to stop." It is estimated that, as of
| March 2018, over $30,000 has been raised in this way.[31]
| tarxvf wrote:
| https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/29/us/splc-leadership-
| crisis/ind...
|
| http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4278
|
| It's really telling that you included the bit about guns
| and gun rights in support of your assertion that he's
| racist. It reads more like you're upset with his politics
| overall?
| baremetal wrote:
| It's strange how incoherent some peoples views are, they
| are so mixed up inside they cant even stay on topic and
| create a cogent argument.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| So you tolerate his racism because you like his politics?
| Or is tolerating racism part of your politics too?
|
| "Unfortunately, this doesn't cover the BLM crowd, which
| would have an average IQ of about 85 if it's
| statistically representative of Americans blacks as a
| whole. I've never tried to train anyone that dim and
| wouldn't want to." -Eric S Raymond
|
| "In the U.S., blacks are 12% of the population but commit
| 50% of violent crimes; can anyone honestly think this is
| unconnected to the fact that they average 15 points of IQ
| lower than the general population? That stupid people are
| more violent is a fact independent of skin color." -Eric
| S Raymond
|
| "And for any agents or proxy of the regime interested in
| asking me questions face to face, I've got some bullets
| slathered in pork fat to make you feel extra special
| welcome." -Eric S Raymond
|
| "A clash of civilizations driven by the failure of
| Islamic/Arab culture (though I would stress the problem
| of the Islamic commandment to jihad more than he does). I
| think he [Steven den Beste] is also right to say that our
| long-term objective must be to break, crush and
| eventually destroy this culture, because we can't live on
| the same planet with people who both carry those memes
| and have access to weapons of mass destruction. They will
| hate us and seek to destroy us not for what we've done
| but for what we are." -Eric S Raymond
|
| "When I hear the words "social responsibility", I want to
| reach for my gun." -Eric S Raymond
| tarxvf wrote:
| (More related discussion)
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15513074
|
| http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=142
| http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4994 Note the page numbers of
| those URLs. From the first one:
|
| """ Let's start with a strict and careful definition: A
| racist is a person who makes unjustified assumptions
| about the behavior or character of individuals based on
| beliefs about group racial differences.
|
| I think racism, in this sense, is an unequivocally bad
| thing. I think most decent human beings would agree with
| me. But if we're going to define racism as a bad thing,
| then it has to be a behavior based on unjustified
| assumptions, because otherwise there could be times when
| the fear of an accusation of racism could prevent people
| from seeking or speaking the truth.
|
| There are looser definitions abroad. Some people think it
| is racist merely to believe there are significant
| differences between racial groups. But that is an abuse
| of the term, because it means that believing the
| objective truth, without any intent to use it to prejudge
| individuals, can make you a racist. """
|
| You're continuing to act as if you hate his politics and
| refuse to read what he writes in good faith, and fail to
| cite quotes. I guess from the previous discussions this
| is a pet project of yours. Calling out problems and
| explicitly trying to figure out solutions where everyone
| is on equal footing is the opposite of racism.
|
| For my own pet project: Public school systems are failing
| to teach effectively but it disproportionately impacts
| minorities due to systemic income inequality (suburbs
| with 'good schools' being richer). (My mom thinks this is
| done on purpose and stems from old-school racists still
| upset about desegregation, and lately I think she's right
| - too many inner city schools are turning people out
| without even the ability to read for it to be an
| accident.) In your worldview, ESR would be giddy about
| this and want it to continue. Does that really seem like
| something he would agree with, to you?
|
| From my reading of his blog, I can't really see my way to
| a world where he would. He seems like a
| libertarian/egalitarian that would want to improve
| education for everyone, so it's very difficult to see
| _how_ you 're getting to your conclusions, nevermind try
| them on for size.
| tarxvf wrote:
| > So you tolerate his racism because you like his
| politics? Or is tolerating racism part of your politics
| too?
|
| From the start this thread is because I questioned the
| description of him as a racist, so I clearly don't
| believe he's a racist. Tolerating racism is very much
| _not_ a part of my politics, or your accusation of him
| being a racist wouldn 't bother me in the slightest.
| Obviously.
|
| Still not sure why you've consistently tried to cast
| phrases that disagree with you politically but have
| absolutely no bearing to race as racist in tone, somehow.
| At least this last set of quotes, minus the context,
| facially _appear_ to be racist. That's an improvement! I
| couldn't substantiate the first couple. He could
| plausibly have just made the originals disappear, but at
| this point I'm losing interest. If he was a racist, and a
| presumably unapologetic one, why is it not in his blog,
| and why is his blog in stark contrast to your claims?
| baremetal wrote:
| Calling people racist is hateful.
|
| Even if they are racist.
|
| Let's love and not hate. don't make it worse by adding
| hatred to an already awful situation.
|
| "You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that
| created it." - Albert Einstein
| nicoco wrote:
| Hate the racism, not the racist! I agree. All we need is
| love, for fuck's sake.
| teddyh wrote:
| Just FYI about DonHopkins: in the past, in response to
| exchanges like this here on HN12, and despite my identity
| not being public here on HN, user DonHopkins _tracked me
| down_ and emailed me several times (despite me not
| responding), writing unhinged rants accusing me of racism
| because of some bookmarks I had saved (also not public,
| which he _also_ tracked down) since they contained links
| to, among other things, some people whom he found
| objectionable.
|
| Just so you know what to expect.
|
| 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26211920#26222246
|
| 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26215112#26234284
| baremetal wrote:
| What kind of mentality could this post be described as?
|
| Calling people racist is hateful.
|
| Lets love and not hate.
| roblh wrote:
| If you go to that website and then back to hn, the hn background
| looks blue.
| inportb wrote:
| So it does! Neat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterimage
| b1c837696ba28b wrote:
| is < this | the > way
| l0b0 wrote:
| I don't get Master Foo Discourses on the Two Paths. "Three pounds
| of VAX!" Anyone?
| alexjurkiewicz wrote:
| Restating the koan: The UNIX way values both simplicity of
| implementation and correct behaviour in all circumstances.
| These values are often in tension. You must not follow these
| values blindly. They apply only at the right time.
| djha-skin wrote:
| The original koan has a monk asking "What is Buddha?" With the
| Master's response being "This flax weighs 3 pounds", referring
| to the flax in his garment. The koan is intended to point out
| the practical nature of the Buddhist religion. Buddha to the
| master is all the things he does as part of his worship, and
| there are practical aspects to that worship such as buying 3 lb
| of flax. "Buddha is as Buddha does".
|
| Unix nature being "3 lb of VAX", the most popular hardware
| running Unix at the time, suggests that practicality is more
| important than idealistic purism. Tigers like to stay on the
| ground but sometimes they jump in the air so saying "tigers are
| creatures of the ground" have exceptions that make sense. A
| similar idea applies to eagles. These exceptions are part of
| nature.
|
| Exceptions to the rule in favor of practicality are okay and
| still make sense. These exceptions are still part of Unix
| nature.
| jimhefferon wrote:
| It comes from a famous koan. Google "three pounds of flax".
| kqr wrote:
| I know the traditional Unix worse-is-better philosophy holds
| simplicity of implementation as a higher goal than consistency
| of interface. I don't know how that ties into tigers and VAXen,
| though.
| makeitrain wrote:
| https://youtu.be/lE4UXdJSJM4
| vrglvrglvrgl wrote:
| [dead]
| Affric wrote:
| That was a great read. Very fun. And wise.
| IshKebab wrote:
| _Sounds_ very wise.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| I love these. Maybe someone can help me locate a hacker koan I
| once read, but can't seem to find anywhere... it was a
| particularly humorous dig at java-style object oriented
| programming in a corporate environment; the novice spends their
| day lugging an object all through the corporation, peeling off
| layer after layer, only to find an empty method returning
| nothing.
|
| Somehow I can't find it, or the collection it was in, anywhere...
| maybe this rings a bell with anyone.
| mjw1007 wrote:
| This one? http://www.thecodelesscode.com/case/110
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Oh yes, that's the one! Thank you so much!
| traverseda wrote:
| Somewhere in here I think
|
| http://thecodelesscode.com/contents
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Thanks! Many more forgotten gems in there, too..!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-05-06 23:03 UTC)