Simple Is Not Small: Why Unix Pipelines Are Coupled, Not Simple
In this post, the author argues that simplicity and smallness are often conflated, using Unix pipelines as an example of small but coupled tools. He contrasts this with Clojure's decoupled approach, where data and behavior are separated, and discusses how large programs like Google Drive can feel simple to users. The post concludes that simplicity should always be prioritized, even if it requires more effort.
Unix tools are small but they are not simple.
- hankbond
Great piece, very straightforward examples, although I did have to squint for quite a while to grok the Closure portion.
I am currently building a piece of very modular software and it has been the hardest-to-design project of my entire career. I would never be allotted this amount of time-effort at any job I have held to make something this robust and clearly defined. Many aspects of this project have taken 3-5 rounds trying-and-trashing to get an abstraction that is uncomplicated.
This is precisely why vibe coding is so successful for building tiny isolated scripts, and so disastrous for anything else. It's just really dang hard to build something large and simple.
- embedding-shape
Important to note as well, is that "simple" isn't "lesser" or "dumber", it can be "more" and "wider", yet still "simpler".
Unexpectedly, Rich Hickey explains it best, watch the "Simple Made Easy" talk if you haven't before, one of the few talks I probably watch bi-yearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4
Few things, concepts and ideas have changed as much of my programming mind as Hickey's talk and ultimately Clojure have done over the years.
Wish we had new amazing Hickey talks to link to, maybe it seems he's about the hang up the hammock perhaps?
- andai
The word simple is used here a way I'm having trouble wrapping my head around.
This specific usage appears to come from this linked talk, Simple Made Easy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4
My reaction to the Unix pipeline was that, the reason it exploded in complexity is because the pieces were too simple. They were insufficiently expressive.
But the word is used in a different way here, and I'll have to watch the talk to understand what exactly is meant. (Something like orthogonality?)