Yigal Chripun wrote: >>> Windows has a different design than Unix's "everything is a file" >>> which IMO is a stupid legacy design from the 70's. <snip> > I agree that a uniform and consistent API is important and I'm sure that > MS managed to mess that up :) but that's besides the point. "Everything > is a file" does not provide a uniform API but rather provides no API. > Each unix tool has its own mini-syntax and its own set of command-line > arguments and you need to learn how to use each tool separately beyond > trivial use cases.
You need Plan 9 to really show the power of “everything is a file”. And they’ve removed all the extra option from the little tools, so there aren’t ten trillion languages. Just one language—the shell rc is much more regular than any *sh—with easy-to-read commands. And the terminal window program is *much* better than just about anything else. Line wrap, copy-paste, filename expansion (*not* embedded into individual programs), &c. —Joel Salomon
