From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 5 22:15:44 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C09B1065670 for ; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 22:15:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rwmaillists@googlemail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f182.google.com (mail-wy0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F0718FC08 for ; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 22:15:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyf19 with SMTP id 19so15965091wyf.13 for ; Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:15:42 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:date:from:to:subject :message-id:in-reply-to:references:x-mailer:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=FDc+B66w4u8ORbMPkZ9qLM3nvfn9ttx/Ug82dXli0Hw=; b=xEfk4qoDW+ebiZq+NqAuf8PKszOMQP/2jonlm2wumobTv5i2jScpQHZEoYrXGiZ7/q +czD/3mMQHoAErTcpMNVVBUBZv4BZKzRiXoTHK2eKyqCQnyNtfMSx/oqZupokAjaOsb2 9wMq86794d5gvCzwWXD7kjHkPzeMVgOoHQ1RY= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:in-reply-to:references:x-mailer :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=NA5GUz+RwFHelCUtK6/0Yn8T/FnWzyquQgfT+fdV5Y26Q0Lxgw3OW/bIODOfs+Iou4 JdL9DrciTuCJWP3e766JKrG8CH0Ch8LpEmB+PTWS3l+bOZmFItUDQJZafnnE3ZpNDGcW oOCMotsbSPQrqoySZL+uQ1gJho8zY2mPotAtQ= Received: by 10.216.54.133 with SMTP id i5mr21176wec.23.1294265742436; Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:15:42 -0800 (PST) Received: from gumby.homeunix.com (87-194-105-247.bethere.co.uk [87.194.105.247]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id r6sm11444706weq.20.2011.01.05.14.15.40 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:15:41 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 22:15:38 +0000 From: RW To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20110105221538.26daeb0d@gumby.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: <20110105160514.GA94459@libertas.local.camdensoftware.com> References: <117654.42578.qm@web121409.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> <4D231CB7.2060902@teambox.fr> <86pqsc3774.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <20110105062401.GB74123@guilt.hydra> <20110105160514.GA94459@libertas.local.camdensoftware.com> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.8 (GTK+ 2.22.1; i386-portbld-freebsd8.1) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: a perl question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:15:44 -0000 On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 08:05:14 -0800 Chip Camden wrote: > Quoth Chad Perrin on Tuesday, 04 January 2011: > > The weirdest thing about most useless uses of cat is that not using > > cat would actually be a little clearer and involve fewer keystrokes > > -- as in this case. > > > I blame OOP. Programmer thinks about the data stream before they > think about the process. It's a nouns-first orientation. You might easily get the same prejudice from data flow diagrams - or plumbing. Personally I find that using cat makes things simpler and less error prone when reusing pipelines in shell history. For example it's easier to edit cat file | foo into cat file | bar | foo or cat file? | foo than editing foo < file into bar < file | foo or cat file? | foo