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Master Foo and the Unix Zealot
A Unix zealot, having heard that Master Foo was wise in the Great Way, came to
him for instruction. Master Foo said to him:
“When the Patriarch Thompson invented Unix, he did not understand it. Then he
gained in understanding, and no longer invented it.”
“When the Patriarch McIlroy invented the pipe, he knew that it would transform
software, but did not know that it would transform mind.”
“When the Patriarch Ritchie invented C, he condemned programmers to a thousand
hells of buffer overruns, heap corruption, and stale-pointer bugs.”
“Truly, the Patriarchs were blind and foolish!”
The zealot was greatly angered by the Master's words.
“These enlightened ones,” he protested, “gave us the Great Way of Unix. Surely,
if we mock them we will lose merit and be reborn as beasts or MCSEs.”
“Is your code ever completely without stain and flaw?” demanded Master Foo.
“No,” admitted the zealot, “no man's is.”
“The wisdom of the Patriarchs” said Master Foo, “was that they knew they were
fools.”
Upon hearing this, the zealot was enlightened.
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