Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!ncsuvx!eceris!ml
From: ml@eceris.ncsu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Dealing with multiple scripting languages...
Summary: Possibly a 1.4 request...
Message-ID: <3650@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 14 Aug 89 03:28:40 GMT
References: <1989Aug8.214011.3351@agate.berkeley.edu> <479@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <89222.093949UH2@PSUVM> <19146@usc.edu> <276@nlgvax.UUCP>  <1989Aug14.015608.21854@agate.berkeley.edu>
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In a previous article, mwm@eris.berkeley.edu (Mike ... Meyer) wrote:

]There have been a number of different ways of dealing with having more
]than one command interpreter on Unix. This indicates to me that the
]Amiga community ought to find - and implement - a good solution before
]it becomes a serious problem. 


Yes, I have to second this notion (as I'm sure many of us would).  If
this hasn't yet made it to the 1.4 wishlist, let it hereby be added!
I don't think the solution should be so simple as merely recognizing
ARexx scripts from executables or CLI "scripts".  A simple mechanism
really ought to be implemented whereby any program can be invoked as
the "script language".

I know that this is one feature I made heavy use of on Unix systems
(that is, the "#!interpreter" approach); as I wrote a number of various
interpreters and it was certainly very handy to create "commands"
(i.e. script files) which went through these alternate interpreters
without my having to do anything more complicated than typing the
filename to invoke the command.  This is one feature I do miss on 
the Amiga; especially since I've ported some of these interpreters
to it.  [ & Note:  interpreters don't necessarily have to be shells
in the traditional Unix sense.  Mine were typically things like plotting
or rendering programs or graphics display utilities which understood
commands typed interactively.  This was a great way to package canned
demos to be distributed -- the user would just type the name of the
script file, and didn't have to worry about having to do things
like invoking the program, and then loading in a script.  Anyways,
enough rambling ... ]

One request:  make the mechanism a little smarter than Unix's!  The one
bad thing about "#!interpreter" is that Unix requires that the name
of the interpreter be fully qualified, ie: "#!/bin/csh" is good, but
"#!csh" is not (this stems from the fact that the "#!" mechanism is
handled by the kernel exec() calls and not the shells; and search paths
are just a convenience provided by the shell and not the core OS --- 
let's do it differently on the Amiga).

Well anyways, sorry for running on so long on a comparatively minor
topic.  Wait 'til I get really hyped up about something :-)


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