I’ve been working on a book called Small is Beautiful: The Unix Philosophy, to be serialized in Tekka. It’s been a lot of fun.
It’s a book I think needs writing. It discusses the Unix model of small one-task tools, simple human-readable formats, etc. not just listing the requirements, but arguing for them in a tight and witty style.
(Eric Raymond has a book called The Art of Unix Programming but he doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about. Mike Gancarz has a book called The Unix Philosophy but it was pretty uninteresting.)
I’m not really the best person to write this book, so I want your help. If you’re the kind of Unix geek who uses software by djb whenever possible, or finds a sort of abstract beauty in being able to do great things from small programs, or tries to write small and elegant programs instead of big and powerful ones, I need your help.
Whether it’s in writing some stuff, editing what I’ve written, or just reading it and telling me what you think, any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. If you’re interested, send a note to unixphil@aaronsw.com with your background and qualifications.
posted January 27, 2003 04:09 PM (Technology) #