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I for one would enjoy the clean-feel of Python in initscrit composition. |
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That said, I would miss the very "Unix atmospherics" of awk and sed |
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and the run-time interactivity of the shell scripting (I mean, it's potential |
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for shorthand notation). |
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|
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It may be a difficult one to call though. I imagine that many would feel |
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similar sentiments about the scripting advantages of both Python and |
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shell scripting. Maybe practicality would have the last say, however. |
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On machines with very limited resources (I have a box running Gentoo |
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on a Pentium 133Mhz and < 1GB harddrive with 64Mb RAM), Python |
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would be a death sentence for the box. Shell scripting is the only |
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option in such environments for job control etc etc. |
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|
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Perhaps we might experiment with a build-time option for incorporating |
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*both* Python and shell scripting tools such as awk and sed in to the |
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shell (by having the Python *shell extras* turned on/off via a |
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compilation flag?). In such environments both would be available for |
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use as a shell scripting resource. Or perhaps again, we might set |
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about incorporating shell scripting notation in to Python and attempt to |
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ferment a hybrid for shell scripting purposes, initscrits and the like. |
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|
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Interesting idea that has made me think more closely about what a |
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shell scripting language is and what it is for. |
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|
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Will be good to see if this goes anywhere. |
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|
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--Merv Hammer |
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|
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On 15 Apr 2003 at 21:29, Justin Whitney wrote: |
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|
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> Hi, |
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> |
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> I don't really like talking about these kinds of vague ideas (like I'm |
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> doing here), because that doesn't get them written - but this one I want |
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> feedback on first before I dive in... so... |
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> |
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> For a lot of reasons I'd like to implement the initscrits in something |
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> other than shell script. Something like python, say. |
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> |
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> Reasons for doing this would include: |
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> |
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> *writing (advanced) shellscripts requires learning awk/sed, and various |
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> other minor tools (mostly because their features aren't supported by the |
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> language). Use of a language with these features builtin lowers the |
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> learning requirement, or at least puts it all under one roof. |
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> *improved performance and bytecode-compilability |
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> *Speedups due to fewer exec calls (for awk/sed/etc) |
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> |
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> Reasons NOT to do this would include: |
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> |
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> *breaking from standard would mean packages with provided initscripts |
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> would require a rewrite. |
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> *slight increase in boot requirements (interpreter and libs must exist |
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> at least minimally on root partition) |
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> *probably needs a bit more memory |
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> |
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> other bits: |
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> |
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> *compatibility could obviously be maintained, as existing shell scripts |
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> could still be run without changes. |
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> |
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> |
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> Note: I am by no means proposing this as a standard feature of gentoo. |
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> |
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> That said, since gentoo already uses python for portage, selecting |
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> python as the language to use makes sense. Aside from the re-writes, |
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> and some other details, I don't see much disadvantage to the above |
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> design. |
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> |
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> Comments appreciated. |
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> |
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> --Justin Whitney |
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> |
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> |
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> -- |
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> gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |
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> |
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|
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|
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-- |
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Merv Hammer |
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mailto: merv@×××××××××××××.cy |
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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-Working with Unix is like wrestling a worthy opponent... |
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-Working with windows is like attacking a small whining child |
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who is carrying a .38 |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |