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From: cks@utradio.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: What is clist.library?
Message-ID: <435@utradio.toronto.edu>
Date: Sun, 26-Jul-87 18:07:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: utradio.435
Posted: Sun Jul 26 18:07:16 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jul-87 02:38:07 EDT
References: <18102@cca.CCA.COM> <3616@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: cks@radio.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann)
Organization: Newsreaders Anonymous
Lines: 29
Keywords: amiga programming, libraries, documentation

In article <3616@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
>In article <18102@cca.CCA.COM> bryan@cca.CCA.COM (Bryan Pendleton) writes:
>> [requests information on the clist library]
>>
>	I asked -=RJ=- about this at the Commodore Show early this year.
>Apparently, it's a set of (debugged) string manipulation routines, similar
>to string operations you might find in LISP (-=RJ=-'s words).  A scan of
>available Amiga software some months back revealed that *nobody* uses that
>library.  If and when 1.3 comes out, the clist.library will probably be
>pulled out of the ROM and tossed onto the WorkBench disk.

 A good reference for the ideas behind the clist library can be found
in Maurice J. Bach's book _The Design of the Unix Operating System_,
in section 10.3.1 ("clists"). I too had been puzzled about the clist
library; when I got to that chapter of _TDotUOS_ I slapped my forehead
and said to myself 'so *THATS* what the clist.library is for'.

 Has anyone ever checked the open count on the clist library? I had
been assuming that CON: and similar AmigaDOS handlers used it to
buffer their input, the same way Unix tty drivers use clists. More
generally, does anyone have tools for snooping around in libraries and
devices (something like Structure Browser - has anyone been augmenting
that to understand libraries)?

-- 
	"I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world."
			Number Ten Ox, "Bridge of Birds"
Chris Siebenmann		{allegra,mnetor,decvax,pyramid}!utgpu!radio!cks
cks@radio.toronto.edu	     or	...!utgpu!{yetti!lethe, darwin}!ontmoh!cks