"Unix programmers inherit a strong bias toward making interfaces expressive and configurable. Like programmers from other traditions, they think about how to match their interfaces to the target audience -- but they differ in how they deal with uncertainty about that target audience. Software developers whose experience is primarily with client operating systems default toward making interfaces simple; they are willing to sacrifice expressiveness to gain ease. Unix programmers default toward making interfaces expressive and transparent, and are more willing to sacrifice ease to get these qualities.
"The results of this attitude have often been described as interfaces written 'by programmers, for programmers'. But this oversimplifies the matter in an important way. When a Unix programmer opts for configurability and expressiveness over ease, he is not necessarily thinking of his audience as consisting solely of other programmers; rather, he is often acting on a gut-level instinct that in the absence of knowledge about end-users' intentions it is best not to patronize or second-guess them."
-- Eric S. Raymond, The Art of Unix Programming, 2003 (partway through chapter 11, if you want to jump straight to the immediate context)
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