Sockets as gilded unicorns
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Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2020 13:36:14 +1100
From: Rob Pike <robpike@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: gmane.org.unix-heritage.general
Subject: Re: First appearance of named pipes
Message-ID: <CAKzdPgyQE6idAQNJ4sarjOUL8nvAF7m9BgY6NCjep6_wZMpjzQ@mail.gmail.com>
Always bemused me that to get a named local I/O connection one ended
up with "Unix domain (what does that even mean?) sockets" rather than
named pipes, especially since sockets are about as natural a Unix
concept as lawn mowers. I've been told, but haven't confirmed, that
early sockets didn't even support read and write. They still don't
support open and close, and never will.
Networks are not intrinsically more special than any other I/O
peripheral, but they have become gilded unicorns mounted on rotating
hovercrafts compared to the I/O devices Unix supported before them.
-rob
Tags: quote, ойті
Authors: ag