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hirezYou know, perhaps trying to build complicated things with inadequate documentation, the day after an evening in the pub to commemorate a friend/colleague who'd killed themselves wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had.
I also have very mixed feelings about something that's basically mr-pointless-swearing becoming popular with a section of the twatterati. One might be forgiven for forming the impression that a swathe of twitter is just looking for the next jolt of vicarious indignation so they can fondle themselves into a frenzy of hatred in the privacy and comfort of their own homes.
I understand that the traditional method used to be 'a scourge of small cords', but we live in the C21st and going up to the mall at Cribbs to drive people out of the Apple shop with a pointy stick is just going to get you arrested.
So here's the thing. SysV is pretty hateful because it got preserved in aspic at some point in the late 80s and all that has happened since is that it's got faster and cheaper. No-one has yet managed to keep a straight face while explaining why you need five (or was it seven?) different startup configurations and their associated collection of dreadful scripts that have to detach from the console. Or not detach from the console. And provide redirection for stdin, stdout and stderr. Or not do that. I'm sure I wouldn't have to try too hard to redirect stderr to pun: (and stdin to rdr:) - I am aware that those are CP/M devices - because I have a punch/reader in the shed. Which I'm sure would be a jolly jape for an April 01 RFC, but exactly no use at all to someone who'd like to get their website working now please.
Short version - Change is good, init is dreadful. The way OSX does startup/shutdown is really very good. Although XML does basically look like the OS is wearing a mullet. Ha-ha business up front, far roo much typing with special editor out the back.
Meanwhile, back with SysV, the advice in 'Practical Unix and Internet Security' for Internet-facing kit boiled down to 'Only keep packages on the system you know you need, which does not include a compiler/build chain.' And 'If the process-list is longer than a terminal session, then it's too long. Don't run things you don't need/understand.' This is coincidentally fine advice when trying to stuff as many VMs as possible into a bulging sock of a hypervisor. And those filthy BSD degenerates had Jails. And. And.
Docker networking still makes my eyes bleed. However, I chanced upon the weblog of a chap going on at some length about the state of SDN. Hoo, boy. I know little of SDN and after that read I am glad.
Oh, the bit about spotting undocumented command-line options on a slide half-way through a presentation? I didn't make that up. Modern system documentation is piss-poor, and no, a 'screen' 'cast' is really quite far from acceptable. No I am not going to do it for you and 'submit' a 'pull request'. I already have paid employment and a life to be getting on with outside of that.
I also have very mixed feelings about something that's basically mr-pointless-swearing becoming popular with a section of the twatterati. One might be forgiven for forming the impression that a swathe of twitter is just looking for the next jolt of vicarious indignation so they can fondle themselves into a frenzy of hatred in the privacy and comfort of their own homes.
I understand that the traditional method used to be 'a scourge of small cords', but we live in the C21st and going up to the mall at Cribbs to drive people out of the Apple shop with a pointy stick is just going to get you arrested.
So here's the thing. SysV is pretty hateful because it got preserved in aspic at some point in the late 80s and all that has happened since is that it's got faster and cheaper. No-one has yet managed to keep a straight face while explaining why you need five (or was it seven?) different startup configurations and their associated collection of dreadful scripts that have to detach from the console. Or not detach from the console. And provide redirection for stdin, stdout and stderr. Or not do that. I'm sure I wouldn't have to try too hard to redirect stderr to pun: (and stdin to rdr:) - I am aware that those are CP/M devices - because I have a punch/reader in the shed. Which I'm sure would be a jolly jape for an April 01 RFC, but exactly no use at all to someone who'd like to get their website working now please.
Short version - Change is good, init is dreadful. The way OSX does startup/shutdown is really very good. Although XML does basically look like the OS is wearing a mullet. Ha-ha business up front, far roo much typing with special editor out the back.
Meanwhile, back with SysV, the advice in 'Practical Unix and Internet Security' for Internet-facing kit boiled down to 'Only keep packages on the system you know you need, which does not include a compiler/build chain.' And 'If the process-list is longer than a terminal session, then it's too long. Don't run things you don't need/understand.' This is coincidentally fine advice when trying to stuff as many VMs as possible into a bulging sock of a hypervisor. And those filthy BSD degenerates had Jails. And. And.
Docker networking still makes my eyes bleed. However, I chanced upon the weblog of a chap going on at some length about the state of SDN. Hoo, boy. I know little of SDN and after that read I am glad.
Oh, the bit about spotting undocumented command-line options on a slide half-way through a presentation? I didn't make that up. Modern system documentation is piss-poor, and no, a 'screen' 'cast' is really quite far from acceptable. No I am not going to do it for you and 'submit' a 'pull request'. I already have paid employment and a life to be getting on with outside of that.
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no subject
Date: 2015-11-26 11:45 pm (UTC)As a former techpubs person at a then-major UNIX OEM in the early 90s I want you to know that ... well, UNIX was different back then and SYSV init was built that way for at least a vestigial reason; there were different classes of machine to run on but the default assumption was (a) minicomputer (single user mode for maintenance, multi-user for terminal logins) or (b) workstation (single user or X11 with xlogin or similar and multi-user shit happening in the background). The spare runlevels probably got bundled in with the five needsome ones (a shutdown level and run level 0) just in case someone thought of a future use.
But. But. minicomputer! Not a fricking PC, whatever the SCO XENIX/286 ads in Byte in the late 80s insisted.
As for documentation, there were 40 of us in techpubs at SCO juggling about 12 million words of text; when we finally gave up on printed docset and moved to HTML/PDF/CD-ROM the full wall of paper ran to about a metre of ringbound folders, and it kept on growing. Then the dipshits at the FSF decided that they could ditch man pages and make do with techinfo (which nobody else used), stopped documenting stuff entirely, and then the Linux "what are you, some kind of n00b? Read the source code!" tools came along.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-27 12:06 pm (UTC)Oh god. You know, there's a case to be made that there's not much useful doc any more because 'Well, because the code is open source you can easily check the .c sourcfiles to see how that's implemented.'
Yes. I could do that. Or I could piss off and go market gardening.
(Still smirking about 'whippersnapper'. I think there's about 18 months in it..)
no subject
Date: 2015-11-27 04:49 am (UTC)Now try and live next to all those types Who Are Convinced They Will Be The Next Great Thing and nobodyreallybotheredwithallthathorriblemakeworkitsjustalloutsourcedspecsbrosfromStanfordand4kstudioflats,right?
We need several pints next time you're in town. Also I think you and Lucy need to gather notes on new effects and colors.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-27 12:12 pm (UTC)I have this whole other piece (likely inspired by correspondent above) about a whole swathe of missing technical advance because those little SV shites don't have to deal with their own or others impairments. There's regular talk about 'outboard brain', but for the people who actually need that sort of thing (Let me tell you about my mother, etc..) there is nothing worth a light.
Will an outboard brain work as an advertising platform? No. They're not interested.
(We totally need to get to the left coast before the heat death of the universe or before intercontinental travel becomes a thing only for the 1%)