Comments on: The Importance Of Pipes http://sidawson.com/2009/03/importance-of-pipes.html Self Improving Software. Evolutionary Algorithms. Weak AI. Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:48:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Si Dawson http://sidawson.com/2009/03/importance-of-pipes.html/comment-page-1#comment-11 Si Dawson Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:54:08 +0000 http://sidawson.com/?p=14#comment-11 Ha! How could I not reply to this for so long? Very slack of me, I apologise.<br><br>You're quite right - in many unexpected ways, DOS was further ahead than the windows behemoth (which is what I was referring to). The difficulty of piping GUI apps together drastically limited the ability of windows apps to scale with anywhere near the simplicity & flexibility of unix (or even dos, text based) systems.<br><br>I believe they've started re-addressing this in the last 5 years or so, with a "power" user version of dos shipping as a support kit for admins, buuut, it's still really bandaids on an architectural limitation. Developing a good GUI O/S, it's not for amateurs :) Ha! How could I not reply to this for so long? Very slack of me, I apologise.

You're quite right – in many unexpected ways, DOS was further ahead than the windows behemoth (which is what I was referring to). The difficulty of piping GUI apps together drastically limited the ability of windows apps to scale with anywhere near the simplicity & flexibility of unix (or even dos, text based) systems.

I believe they've started re-addressing this in the last 5 years or so, with a “power” user version of dos shipping as a support kit for admins, buuut, it's still really bandaids on an architectural limitation. Developing a good GUI O/S, it's not for amateurs :)

]]> By: Batch-code Jack http://sidawson.com/2009/03/importance-of-pipes.html/comment-page-1#comment-9 Batch-code Jack Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:49:43 +0000 http://sidawson.com/?p=14#comment-9 (additional info)<br><br>Most people who use DOS batches are probably aware of the redirectors "<" and ">", which are also tremendously useful, but the true pipe "|" is often misunderstood and not used. (additional info)

Most people who use DOS batches are probably aware of the redirectors “<” and “>”, which are also tremendously useful, but the true pipe “|” is often misunderstood and not used.

]]> By: Batch-code Jack http://sidawson.com/2009/03/importance-of-pipes.html/comment-page-1#comment-10 Batch-code Jack Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:47:47 +0000 http://sidawson.com/?p=14#comment-10 Great post, as usual Si... I've not checked for a while and just caught up on your other blog as well. Small correction for you though - the "other operating system" you refer to (presumably ms-dos?) also has pipes, and it's had them since version 1.25 as far as I know. Very useful things, too! :) The main problem is that not all applications written for it are able to use them, which is where it all falls down a bit.<br><br>As I recall though, you wrote some very small apps for me in the early 1990's when I worked at DIA, which created date-strings for use at command prompt levels. I used pipes to get them where I wanted then. Thanks for those, btw! :)<br><br>Looking at what you're describing, having lots of small programs doing small tasks to accomplish the larger task, reminds me of using the OS as a language like FORTH, where you slowly build up the language by creating small commands which do minor tasks, until finally you have one command that does what you want. I guess the OS (DOS or UNIX derivatives, or even CP/M for that matter, if you remember that far back) can be used in the same way...<br><br> - Jack Great post, as usual Si… I've not checked for a while and just caught up on your other blog as well. Small correction for you though – the “other operating system” you refer to (presumably ms-dos?) also has pipes, and it's had them since version 1.25 as far as I know. Very useful things, too! :) The main problem is that not all applications written for it are able to use them, which is where it all falls down a bit.

As I recall though, you wrote some very small apps for me in the early 1990's when I worked at DIA, which created date-strings for use at command prompt levels. I used pipes to get them where I wanted then. Thanks for those, btw! :)

Looking at what you're describing, having lots of small programs doing small tasks to accomplish the larger task, reminds me of using the OS as a language like FORTH, where you slowly build up the language by creating small commands which do minor tasks, until finally you have one command that does what you want. I guess the OS (DOS or UNIX derivatives, or even CP/M for that matter, if you remember that far back) can be used in the same way…

– Jack

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