Editing Unix philosophy (section)

{{Short description|Software development philosophy}}
[[File:Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.jpg|thumb|[[Ken Thompson]] and [[Dennis Ritchie]], key proponents of the Unix philosophy|alt=]]

The '''Unix philosophy''', originated by [[Ken Thompson]], is a set of cultural norms and philosophical approaches to [[Minimalism (computing)|minimalist]], [[Modularity (programming)|modular]] [[software development]]. It is based on the experience of leading developers of the [[Unix]] [[operating system]]. Early Unix developers were important in bringing the concepts of modularity and reusability into software engineering practice, spawning a "[[software tools]]" movement. Over time, the leading developers of Unix (and programs that ran on it) established a set of cultural norms for developing software; these norms became as important and influential as the technology of Unix itself, and have been termed the "Unix philosophy."

The Unix philosophy emphasizes building simple, compact, clear, modular, and [[Extensibility|extensible]] code that can be easily maintained and repurposed by developers other than its creators. The Unix philosophy favors [[composability]] as opposed to [[Monolithic application|monolithic design]].