2.1 M-Command

M-Command (also referred to as MCMD) is a set of commands that are developed for the purpose of high-speed processing (CSV) of large-scale structured data tables.Its origin can be traced back to the early 1990s. Mr. Yasuyuki Matsuda invented this data processing methodology and commands for large-scale system development projects which was implemented in big companies. The “M” in M-Command refers to Mr Matsuda’s initial.

Mr Matsuda’s invention is not just a technology breakthrough, it fundamentally examines how “information” system can be customized for business use. The system is said to be completely different system design concept then the West. The ideological concept of M command is explained in another paper, nevertheless, it is synonymous with current big data processing technology.

M-Command provides about 70 different commands where each command is specific to a single function (For example, sort or join tables). The basic tenets of what all commands have in common is it reads CSV data from standard input, and carry out a very simple processing method and write the results to standard output. It achieves a variety of processing functions by connecting individual commands with an inter-process stream called "pipe", thus the output of each process feeds directly as input to the next one. These features are the same as the UNIX philosophy. With M-Command, an information system can be created based solely using M-Command and UNIX utilities on a UNIX platform.

It is possible to efficiently process large scale data with hundred millions row of records on a standard PC with M-Command using a standard PC, and it does not require a lot of time to learn M-Command. The command has been included in the curriculum for undergraduate Liberal Arts students in the past, after a few weeks of practice, you will be able to master the commands for data processing.