> Shure, every Unix program starts with the riddle
how to read a
> file, and whats in it. This is maybe one of the reasons why it
> took such a long time until some level has been reached. And
> why a X configuration is still some kind of lotto game.
The Unix philosophy is simplicity. The filesystem is
simple --
everything's just a byte stream, but that doesn't mean that information
can't be embedded into the file that describes its content. That's what
"magic numbers" are all about. See file (1).
That's it so simple, that it's only a covered disk driver. From
an OS I want OS services for common jobs and common solutions
to avoide the millionth invention of the weel. Take the simple
Apple DOS and their relave files - Within Unix not even this
simple kind of optimization is available - From a _real_ OS
I like to have services like SAM/ISAM fileslibrary management
etc. not just stupid, slow and clumbsy byte streams - If you
do it to simple, you miss the chance of geting high level
optimizations.
And what the heck does that have to do with X
configuration? X may be
big, cumbersome, and somewhat ugly, but don't blame Unix for that!
It just developed to the all-is-simple-and-therefore-every-
know-how-is-just-a-local-and-random Philosopy of Unix.
ObCC: Does anybody remember a nice small GUI that came
out for Unix around
the same time as X? I think it was called MGR, or something like that.
Isn't there a Linux implementation ?
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK