6. Transparency: Let There Be Light

Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity.

Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology (1998) —David Gelernter

In the previous chapter we discussed the importance of textual data formats and application protocols, representations that are easy for human beings to examine and interact with. These promote qualities in design that are much valued in the Unix tradition but seldom if ever talked about explicitly: transparency and discoverability.

Software systems are transparent when they don’t have murky corners or hidden depths. Transparency is a passive quality. A program is transparent ...

Get The Art of UNIX Programming now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.