"Everything was small... and my heart sinks for Linux when I see the size of it. [...] The manual page, which really used to be a manual page, is now a small volume, with a thousand options... We used to sit around in the Unix Room saying, 'What can we throw out? Why is there this option?' It's often because there is some deficiency in the basic design β you didn't really hit the right design point. Instead of adding an option, think about what was forcing you to add that option."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesProgrammers from the United StatesSoftware engineers from the United StatesMathematicians from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Doug McIlroy (2005). Ancestry of Linux β How the Fun Began
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doug_McIlroy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Doug McIlroy
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Doug McIlroy β
Related Quotes
"This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write β¦"
"The notion of "intricate and beautiful complexities" is almost an oxymoron. Unix programmers vie with each other for β¦"
"Word and Excel and PowerPoint and other Microsoft programs have intimate β one might say promiscuous β knowledge of eβ¦"
"Ritchie and Thompson made an amazing team; and they played Unix and C like a fine instrument. They sometimes divided β¦"
"I don't know the counts of Unix and Linux servers. I do know that my heart sinks whenever I look under the hood in Liβ¦"
"... speaking of Doug, he's the unsung hero of Unix. He was manager of the group that produced it and a huge creative β¦"
"McIlroy ... is the smartest of all of us and the least remembered or written down of all of us [programmers at Bell Lβ¦"
"Doug McIlroy's influence on the development of both C and C++ cannot be overestimated. I cannot remember a single criβ¦"
"For him delicious flavors dwell In books as in old Muscatel."
"And in the evening, everywhere Along the roadside, up and down, I see the golden torches flare Like lighted street-laβ¦"