Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 08:54:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> To: louie@TransSys.COM (Louis A. Mamakos) Cc: small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Command-line i/f (Re: PicoBSD) Message-ID: <199810041254.IAA10533@hda.hda.com> In-Reply-To: <199810032345.TAA21910@whizzo.transsys.com> from "Louis A. Mamakos" at "Oct 3, 98 07:45:30 pm"
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> > > Again, I fully agree with you - that's also my intention. And I see a > > Forth -based shell as a means to accomplish it - to glue all these > > elements together, at the same time giving it flexibility and programming > > abilities far beyond those of /bin/sh. > > I can certainly see how having an extensible shell would be a very > attractive thing. But if you expect mere mortals to be able to > run (and extend) the thing, I think a FORTH-based approach is doomed > to fail (again). > > Why wouldn't something based on TCL be a better choice? Sysadmins are > probably more likely to be familiar with it (perhaps due to experience > with "expect"). It has a pretty reasonable syntax, and perhaps > a more familair procedural type model. One thing about Tcl is you have to start thinking about it as if it is LISP to get a handle on it, and in that way the syntax is not intuitive. Also, you have to be disciplined in your coding style if you want things to be reusable: Tcl modularity is inadequate and can only be solved by personal standardization on the approach to modularity. I think incr tcl addresses this but I haven't looked at it. Our own configuration and communication for microcontrollers (we're talking 64K types of things now) tied back to FreeBSD systems is Tcl and Tk based. The "send" (to execute scripts on a trusted host) for distributed systems, the integration with Tk for GUIs, and the "current"cy of it are advantages. Peter -- Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com) Realtime development, Machine control, HD Associates, Inc. Safety critical systems, Agency approval To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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