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Date:      Wed, 07 Oct 1998 00:02:11 +0200
From:      Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>
To:        James da Silva <jds@torrentnet.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Small <freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG>, Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
Subject:   Re: Command-line i/f (Re: PicoBSD) 
Message-ID:  <Version.32.19981006235657.0104eeb0@pop.wxs.nl>
In-Reply-To: <199810051918.PAA21621@torrentnet.com>

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At 21:18 05-10-98 , James da Silva wrote:
> > > >IOS is not a good example to  follow here.
> > > Well it might be a source for command names ;)
> > Not even that.  IOS's command interface is a festering abomination.
> > Emulating it would be a major error.
>
>Unless you're trying to sell a router to people who have it memorized
>already, warts and all. :-)

But that's not what we're aiming at ;)

>It seems to me that the basic goal here for picoBSD is to be able to
>configure the whole thing from one script file, including perhaps some
>extensibility (which IOS does not have).

Extensibility sounds good, would an basic UI work as a start point and then
for the various configs create some sort of plug-in that allows normal
FreeBSD boxen to creates personalized disks of picoBSD (each with his own
components needed to perform a given task)?

>An extensible config language can be very small and very quickly
>implemented.  I had thought the TCL interpreter core (minus all the library
>routines) was very small, maybe something went wrong.  Forth certainly
>qualifies.  Small schemes (eg siod) qualify.  A simple line-based mini-
>language can be cons'ed up in a weekend.  Choosing among these is pure
>religion.

What we have to look at with the languages are: 

size, speed, extensibility and especially use.

>If forth is being considered as way to implement a lot of the
>non-performance critical "glue" code, and not necessarily as the interface
>through which the admin operates, then that's less controversial.  

I thought Andrej was very clear in that? Or maybe I was misinterpreting
him, but as far as I understood it, he wanted to use Forth for the whole UI
thing which provides the command set for the admins to use.

>Wouldn't Java or some other bytecode language be similarly compact, or at
>least in the same ballpark?  I know, a typical java runtime, like tcl, is
>bloated; but how much of that is necessary?  How big would a simple JVM
>with only the basic classes be?

Dunno, any way of finding out?

Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven / Asmodai <asmodai(at)wxs.nl>
ICQ-UIN: 1564317 .:. Ninth Circle Enterprises
Network/Security Specialist
    /==|| FreeBSD and picoBSD, the Power to Serve ||==\

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