# Unix Philosophy with an Example

**URL:** <https://forum.devtalk.com/t/unix-philosophy-with-an-example/9645>\
**Category:** In The News\
**Tags:** unix, in-the-news\
**Created:** [17 May 2021 03:56 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/unix-philosophy-with-an-example/9645 "2021-05-17T03:56:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CommunityNews](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/communitynews/32/1113_2.png) [@CommunityNews](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/CommunityNews)\
**Post date:** [17 May 2021 03:56 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/unix-philosophy-with-an-example/9645/1 "2021-05-17T03:56:03Z")

</div>

> The [Unix philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy) is a set of software development concepts and norms which have shaped the way modern software is built.
> 
> Initiated in the late 60s and established over time by developers of [Unix-like operating systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like), the Unix philosophy brought the concepts of [modularity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_programming) and [reusability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reusability) into software engineering best practices.
> 
> [Douglas McIlroy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_McIlroy) summarized the Unix philosophy as follows:
> 
> - Write programs that do one thing and do it well.
> - Write programs to work together.
> - Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.
> 
> Let’s briefly introduce command-line _filters_ and _pipelines_ in order to see how these rules apply within the most popular operating systems.

Read in full here:

> **[Unix Philosophy with an Example](https://massimo-nazaria.github.io/blog/2019/03/02/unix-philosophy-with-an-example.html)**
>
> This article introduces the Unix Philosophy by explaining the concepts of filter and pipeline with a playful example.

_This thread was posted by one of our members via one of our news source trackers._