Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Daniel Armyr <daniel.armyr@××××.se>
To: gentoo-dev@g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] initscripts in python
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 04:13:13
Message-Id: 3E9CD787.3000307@home.se
In Reply to: [gentoo-dev] initscripts in python by Justin Whitney
1 I definately like the idea, especially since I am one of those who knows
2 most programming-languages, but hasn't a clue about how to use all those
3 wierd little mini-programs.
4 However, I am afraid the cons you proposed are quite substantial and
5 cannot be overlooked.
6 //Daniel Armyr
7
8 Justin Whitney wrote:
9
10 >Hi,
11 >
12 >I don't really like talking about these kinds of vague ideas (like I'm
13 >doing here), because that doesn't get them written - but this one I want
14 >feedback on first before I dive in... so...
15 >
16 >For a lot of reasons I'd like to implement the initscrits in something
17 >other than shell script. Something like python, say.
18 >
19 >Reasons for doing this would include:
20 >
21 >*writing (advanced) shellscripts requires learning awk/sed, and various
22 >other minor tools (mostly because their features aren't supported by the
23 >language). Use of a language with these features builtin lowers the
24 >learning requirement, or at least puts it all under one roof.
25 >*improved performance and bytecode-compilability
26 >*Speedups due to fewer exec calls (for awk/sed/etc)
27 >
28 >Reasons NOT to do this would include:
29 >
30 >*breaking from standard would mean packages with provided initscripts
31 >would require a rewrite.
32 >*slight increase in boot requirements (interpreter and libs must exist
33 >at least minimally on root partition)
34 >*probably needs a bit more memory
35 >
36 >other bits:
37 >
38 >*compatibility could obviously be maintained, as existing shell scripts
39 >could still be run without changes.
40 >
41 >
42 >Note: I am by no means proposing this as a standard feature of gentoo.
43 >
44 >That said, since gentoo already uses python for portage, selecting
45 >python as the language to use makes sense. Aside from the re-writes,
46 >and some other details, I don't see much disadvantage to the above
47 >design.
48 >
49 >Comments appreciated.
50 >
51 >--Justin Whitney
52 >
53 >
54 >--
55 >gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list
56 >
57 >
58 >
59 >
60 >
61
62
63 --
64 gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list