From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 11 18:03:46 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8A06A1065675 for ; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:03:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from mail17.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail17.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.132.198]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15BE38FC1C for ; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:03:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peterjeremy@optushome.com.au) Received: from server.vk2pj.dyndns.org (c122-106-216-167.belrs3.nsw.optusnet.com.au [122.106.216.167]) by mail17.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id n1BI3gB6031542 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:03:43 +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 n1BI3gvF004601; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:03:42 +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 n1BI3fUk004600; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:03:41 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:03:41 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy To: Oliver Fromme Message-ID: <20090211180341.GA1467@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> References: <20090208135053.12691emq58yl9m4k@webmail.leidinger.net> <200902081335.n18DZ2h4018582@lurza.secnetix.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="O5XBE6gyVG5Rl6Rj" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200902081335.n18DZ2h4018582@lurza.secnetix.de> X-PGP-Key: http://members.optusnet.com.au/peterjeremy/pubkey.asc User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: CFT: Graphics support for /boot/loader X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:03:46 -0000 --O5XBE6gyVG5Rl6Rj Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2009-Feb-08 14:35:02 +0100, Oliver Fromme wrote: >The actual menu contents are in the beastie.4th file, just >like for the old text menu. So, yes, you'd need to speak >FORTH in order to change that. Well, you need the ability to read the existing FORTH code and extrapolate a bit. You don't need to be a FORTH guru. >Would there be strong resistance if I tried to replace FICL >with something else that is not as brain-knotting as FORTH? I disagree that FORTH is brain-knotting. As a small, general- purpose language that is close to the hardware, I don't think you can do much better. What are you proposing as a replacement? >Just to name an example, I once wrote a bourne-shell-like >parser that would not be difficult to embed. /boot/loader isn't just a matter of parsing an rc.conf style config file. It needs the ability to talk to disk and physical memory and the whole thing needs to be fairly small. If you look at the installed base of computers, FORTH is probably the most popular language for bootloaders. --=20 Peter Jeremy --O5XBE6gyVG5Rl6Rj Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.10 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkmTEv0ACgkQ/opHv/APuIcIFwCZAYOpqQ3SrXK9y6A16pPN7Iht MiIAmgMobh48NOI7YKNEiWUBa3Dij7ON =njuJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --O5XBE6gyVG5Rl6Rj--