[TUHS] Command line options and complexity

[Tyler Adams]

> These go all the way back to v7 unix, where ls has an option to reverse
the sort order (which could have been done by passing the output to tac).

Good point. Why was this done in v7 unix and why wasn't it thrown out?

Tyler

On Tue, Mar 3, 2020, 20:45 Adam Thornton <athornton at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've heard people say that there isn't really any alternative to this kind
> of complexity for command line tools, but people who say that have never
> really tried the alternative, something like PowerShell. I have plenty of
> complaints about PowerShell, but passing structured data around and easily
> being able to operate on structured data without having to hold metadata
> information in my head so that I can pass the appropriate metadata to the
> right command line tools at that right places the pipeline isn't among my
> complaints3 <https://danluu.com/cli-complexity/#fn:W>.
>
> Somewhat disingenuous.  I mean, yes, that's true, but on the other hand it
> means that you have to keep the "what Powershell commands operate on what
> structure" in your head instead, since you can no longer assume the
> pipelines to be a universal interface.
>
> Same basic problem as CMS Pipelines.  Fantastically powerful, and nowhere
> near as easy to compose good functionality as "it's just a byte stream."
>
> Adam
>
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 11:16 AM Jon Steinhart <jon at fourwinds.com> wrote:
>
>> OK, this should be good for some conversation.  A friend sent me this
>> link today: http://danluu.com/cli-complexity/
>>
>
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