It really is a question that I've been having for a long time. I didn't just say that to piss people off. I guess that's the risk you run of coming across when you try to insert yourself in a conversation where the other participants have already agreed on a set of shared opinions - this is great - and you try to question that common assumption/opinion.
I have honestly been questioning my own understanding of pipe, since I've failed to see the significance before; first I thought it was just `a | b` as in "first do a, then b". So then it just seemed like a notational way of composing programs. Then I thought, uh, ok say what? Composing things is the oldest trick in the conceptual book. But then I read more about it and saw that it had this underlying wiring of standard input and output and forking processes that made me realize that I had underestimated it. So, given that, I was wondering if there is even more that I've been missing.
I have for that matter read about named pipes before and tried it out a bit. It's definitely a cool concept.
I don't think it's that you have a differing opinion. Those are great and most people would be OK with that. I really believe you got the down votes because what you said came off as condescending.
If you had said what you just said in your follow up, I think you'd actually have gotten some up votes.
