From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 24 19:03:22 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CFBC71065673; Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:03:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@acm.org) Received: from mail36.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail36.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.133.76]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5CB098FC21; Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:03:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (c122-106-253-149.belrs3.nsw.optusnet.com.au [122.106.253.149]) by mail36.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id o2OJ3AcQ001358 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:03:20 +1100 X-Bogosity: Ham, spamicity=0.000000 Received: from server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (localhost.vk2pj.dyndns.org [127.0.0.1]) by server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o2OJ3A0N019415; Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:03:10 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org) Received: (from peter@localhost) by server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id o2OJ3AFG019414; Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:03:10 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:03:10 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy To: Ivan Voras Message-ID: <20100324190310.GC88991@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> References: <201003231108.45102.jhb@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="tsOsTdHNUZQcU9Ye" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-PGP-Key: http://members.optusnet.com.au/peterjeremy/pubkey.asc User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-CMAE-Score: 0 X-CMAE-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=YFZ0kwS9PmByBn5nQY1JhDuWMe854Du5UVUEbvYbv90= c=1 sm=1 a=LpJuPFDbUUkA:10 a=6I5d2MoRAAAA:8 a=z_5uEx5cAAAA:8 a=8rXycTSKnUeIZn7gSiIA:9 a=i9bxw9mwRr1gzIJARRoA:7 a=oejmiv8SHO_gVZtwjQmMG3KVLzgA:4 a=CjuIK1q_8ugA:10 a=SV7veod9ZcQA:10 a=sNJSx8Oh5NTPJLx-kagA:9 a=ehucrNV-lSZ9-ipAxfwJGh7FM0sA:4 a=y9B6laZwkeQwSvSRL7oYmA==:117 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Another tool for updating /etc -- lua||other script language bikeshed X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:03:23 -0000 --tsOsTdHNUZQcU9Ye Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2010-Mar-24 14:11:21 +0100, Ivan Voras wrote: >Since the issue comes around very rarely, I assume there are not many=20 >people who also get the shivers when they see a shell script (and then a= =20 >"posixy" /bin/sh shell script) more than a 100 lines long? :) With the specific exception of GNU configure and related horrors, I personally don't have anything against shell scripts. You can write good or bad code in any language. >Wouldn't it be nice to have a "blessed" (i.e. present-in-base) script=20 >language interpreter with a syntax that has evolved since the 1970-ies?=20 There's awk (though it's somewhat restricted in its abilities to do anything more than text manipulation) but in principle, I agree. The requirements as I see them are (in no particular order): - BSD-compatible license - must be compatible with buildworld (primarily, it must be possible to cross-build) - contains a critical mass of users in the FreeBSD developer (and ideally committer) community=20 - language must be reasonably stable - will a script written today still work correctly in (say) 5 years. - must be acceptable to the vast majority of the user base (no religious wars allowed) >There was once Perl in base and even though I personally dislike Perl at= =20 >least it was a standard of sorts and guaranteed to be there if needed.=20 It was removed because it didn't support cross-building (buildworld is always done as a cross-build) and was evolving at a rate incompatible with the base system. >As a possible alternative, or at least to learn about others' opinion on= =20 >the subject, I'd like to suggest Lua (http://www.lua.org/). As someone who has never used Lua, how well does it meet the requirements above? --=20 Peter Jeremy --tsOsTdHNUZQcU9Ye Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkuqYe4ACgkQ/opHv/APuIcYmACgnZXiVf7uP+XXE0Ph8PleZUWl 0igAoJNWloUH0IN7445z3fiMsWdnBeLw =8XWf -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --tsOsTdHNUZQcU9Ye--