Re: What's the point of it on *nix?
Yes, I know this as I alluded to in my reply.
However, for automated processes a long chain of utilities is only 'reliable' because a great deal of care has been taken with the output, and people have shouted when output breaking changes occur (which they have). Getting to the people shouting stage, rather than having an object pipeline is not ideal.
I am also aware that there's effort underway to convert utilities to use libxo, which should make output less fragile.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
