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the file is inconsequential. it could be any other universal abstraction, e.g. HTTP POST.

it's just something that every program running on a computer knows how to do, so why bother with special APIs you have to link against if you can just write to a file? (note you can still develop those layers if you wish, but you can also write a device driver in sh if you wish, because why not?)



>the file is inconsequential. it could be any other universal abstraction

Bad abstractions are notoriously problematic, and no abstraction is fit for every purpose.


What are some ways the file abstraction has been problematic for Unix?


So everything-is-a-file is a bit like REST - restrict the verbs, and move the complexity that causes into the addressing scheme and the clients.




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