Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 20:10:30 +0200 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk> To: Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu> Cc: Mark Valentine <mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk>, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: scripting language in base system? Message-ID: <86751.1026843030@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 16 Jul 2002 12:35:55 EDT." <p05111717b959f8055035@[128.113.24.47]>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>You're a step ahead of where I am. I meant listing my thoughts
>on just whether we even *should* have a higher-level scripting
>language in the base system -- never mind what it might look
>like! I have definite, firm opinions on both sides of the
>matter...
I think the conclusion is that yes, in theory it would be wonderful
to have a high-level language in the tree, except that it isn't
wonderful in practice.
Any piece of externally developed software is a PITA, the more
active development the more pain. This disadvantages practically
all relevant languages.
If the language tried to bind to C API's in binary fashion, it
becomes radically MD and gets a architecture hazzle. ("Lex Perl").
Finally, the fact that there isn't a standard which says "this is
the official scripting language of any respectable UNIX" [1] means
that including any particular language will make it magic to FreeBSD
(why does "foo" live in /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin ???)
I wish we could hold a giant Bake-off, throw all the contenders
into the pot, let them solve a number of excercises, have people
vote on the results, and then all unix'en accepts the winner and
implements it in a uniform fashion.
I'd like peace on Balkan while we're at it.
Unfortunately, this is like making people decide on the one and
only kind and color of car for everybody to use. I would be smarter
in a lot of ways, spare-parts, education etc etc, but it just ain't
gonna happen.
Summary: Forget it.
[1] We're talking "higher-level than /bin/sh" here. The crucial
feature is C language extension without fork(2)/exec(2) overhead.
--
Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?86751.1026843030>