From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 11 18:28:47 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 822EB106566B for ; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:28:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olivier@gid0.org) Received: from mail-bw0-f170.google.com (mail-bw0-f170.google.com [209.85.218.170]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1915A8FC18 for ; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:28:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olivier@gid0.org) Received: by bwz18 with SMTP id 18so622459bwz.19 for ; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:28:46 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.223.124.209 with SMTP id v17mr3960194far.6.1234376924832; Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:28:44 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20090211180341.GA1467@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> References: <20090208135053.12691emq58yl9m4k@webmail.leidinger.net> <200902081335.n18DZ2h4018582@lurza.secnetix.de> <20090211180341.GA1467@server.vk2pj.dyndns.org> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:28:44 +0100 Message-ID: <367b2c980902111028q2b1e07b8q29732402f3637c54@mail.gmail.com> From: Olivier SMEDTS To: Peter Jeremy Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Oliver Fromme 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 18:28:47 -0000 2009/2/11 Peter Jeremy : > 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. Yes, that must be the way to go. And if you look at the installed base of computers, Windows is probably the most popular operating system. Oh, wait... Sorry, that was just for the joke ;) Too much slashdot reading today... Cheers -- Olivier Smedts _ ASCII ribbon campaign ( ) e-mail: olivier@gid0.org - against HTML email & vCards X www: http://www.gid0.org - against proprietary attachments / \ "Il y a seulement 10 sortes de gens dans le monde : ceux qui comprennent le binaire, et ceux qui ne le comprennent pas."