[TriLUG] templates -> 'unix philosophy'

Wing D Lizard wingedlizard at nc.rr.com
Mon Apr 17 14:36:56 EDT 2006


> http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch01s06.html
excepts:


      Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.


      Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only
      where you must.


.....

> More of the Unix philosophy was implied not by what these elders said 
> but by what they did and the example Unix itself set. Looking at the 
> whole, we can abstract the following ideas:
>
>   1.
>
>       Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean
>       interfaces.
>
>   2.
>
>       Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
>
>   3.
>
>       Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other
>       programs.
>
>   4.
>
>       Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate
>       interfaces from engines.
>
>   5.
>
>       Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only
>       where you must.
>
>   6.
>
>       Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by
>       demonstration that nothing else will do.
>
>   7.
>
>       Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection
>       and debugging easier.
>
>   8.
>
>       Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and
>       simplicity.
>
>   9.
>
>       Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program
>       logic can be stupid and robust.
>
>  10.
>
>       Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least
>       surprising thing.
>
>  11.
>
>       Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say,
>       it should say nothing.
>
>  12.
>
>       Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as
>       possible.
>
>  13.
>
>       Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in
>       preference to machine time.
>
>  14.
>
>       Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write
>       programs when you can.
>
>  15.
>
>       Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working
>       before you optimize it.
>
>  16.
>
>       Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for “one true way”.
>
>  17.
>
>       Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be
>       here sooner than you think.
>




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