Python's simplicity philosophy

[Ben Finney]

On 20 Nov 2003 16:25:08 +0100, Curt wrote:
> Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com> writes:
>> [Unix command] uniq doesn't care whether the input is sorted or not.
>> All it does is collapse multiple consecutive duplicate lines into a
>> single line.  Using uniq in conjunction with sort is certainly a
>> common mode, but it's hardly required.
> 
> curty at einstein:~$ less uniq.txt
> flirty
> curty
> flirty
> curty
> 
> curty at einstein:~$ uniq uniq.txt
> flirty
> curty
> flirty
> curty
> 
> curty at einstein:~$ sort uniq.txt | uniq
> curty
> flirty
> 
> Maybe my uniq is unique.
> 
> curty at einstein:~$ man uniq
> 
> NAME
>        uniq - remove duplicate lines from a sorted file

I suspect your uniq is not unique; merely poorly documented.  Pass it a
file consisting of unsorted input, but multiple consecutive identical
lines; you should see them collapsed to one.

Your OS needs a better 'man uniq', since that description doesn't say
what the expected behaviour is with unsorted input.  The GNU 'man uniq'
doesn't mention sorted input, but applies to any input.

-- 
 \       "Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of |
  `\                      the not worth knowing."  -- Henry L. Mencken |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney <http://bignose.squidly.org/>