[Sussex] The Art of Unix Programming

[Iain Stevenson]

--On Sunday, December 14, 2003 11:43:50 +0000 Geoff Teale 
<tealeg at member.fsf.org> wrote:

> Why is this important?  Well I have a bee in my bonnet about developers
> who are new to Unix - specifically the hoards now coming in from the
> Windows and MacOS worlds.  On various development mailing lists I've
> seen a lot of posts like:
>
> "Does linux have a registry?  How the hell do I store my settings?"
> "Linux sux, it doesn't have ActiveX/COM/DCOM so I can't script
> OpenOffice.org like MS Office."
> "Linux doesn't have anything like Applescript so I can't script my
> applications"
>

Interesting observations there.  I have no experience of the M$ stuff but 
did dabble in Applescript and found it a painful experience.  The syntax 
never seemed clear leaving application development more of a black art than 
a science.

However, methinks you're in danger of falling into "Linux superiority 
syndrome" for want of a better term.  Doubtless there are good points in 
all platforms.  Certainly the network stuff in Linux is much, much better 
than Apple's OpenTransport.  But how often have you scrabbled around trying 
to find that elusive configuration file - the one that really is working, 
not the one that's from a botched install?  It seems to me that other OS 
have something to teach Linux in terms of clarity of configuration - and I 
don't mean locking everything up in obscure registries.

  Iain