Re: AWK As A Major Systems Programming Language

D <nospam@example.net> writes:

On Mon, 2 Sep 2024, Johanne Fairchild wrote:
>

When I graduated from university, I wanted to become a programmer, but
at that time, only 10+ years of experience was wanted on the job
market, so life decided that I should work in infrastructure/system
administration instead.

>
I always thought of system administration as a programming job.  In
fact, a fun one.  Initially I wanted to be a UNIX system administrator.

>
Yes, having worked as one, I can see that. For me, the pleasure was
always in automation, and the quick feedback loops. I would work on a
piece of the infra-stack, automate as much as possible, and you can do
that in small cycles of days and weeks, instead of the endless bug
hunting the developers at one of my jobs did, in some kind of million+
line CAD software. I always got the feeling talking with them, that
their job would never end, and you would only see small,
micro-incremental improvements stretching over years.
>
Mean while, I'd happily automate my systems, deployments, reports,
statistics etc. so yes, some kind of programming always was there during
my time as a linux/unix system administrator.

I recognize all of the above.  But I think there's an even stronger
point for system administration back then.  When I got introduced to
UNIX systems, it was a time where there were UNIX users and people would
still share the system.  So UNIX administrators did programming that
everyone around the system noticed.  There were mailing lists, NNTP
servers and IRC servers so that people living the same area could talk
to on a daily basis.  Getting online and seeing there were people online
too was a joy. 

The web evolved and computers became cheap, so everyone got their own
and that seems to have isolated everyone.  Instead of talking to your
neighbor, you'd then interact with a lot of people across the world.
System administrators got buried.  We only notice their presence now
when things go completely wrong.  Today, the new generation of
programmers have not even heard of W. Richard Stevens.  I have no idea
how they understand the systems they use.

You offer a shell account to a ``tweenager'' and they decline---thanks,
but no, thanks.  ``I have my own system.''  They see no fun in sharing
in a UNIX system.