Re: [gentoo-dev] initscripts in python

[Daniel Armyr <daniel.armyr@home.se>]

I definately like the idea, especially since I am one of those who knows 
most programming-languages, but hasn't a clue about how to use all those 
wierd little mini-programs.
However, I am afraid  the cons you proposed are quite substantial and 
cannot be overlooked.
//Daniel Armyr

Justin Whitney wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I don't really like talking about these kinds of vague ideas (like I'm
>doing here), because that doesn't get them written - but this one I want
>feedback on first before I dive in... so...
>
>For a lot of reasons I'd like to implement the initscrits in something
>other than shell script.  Something like python, say.
>
>Reasons for doing this would include:
>
>*writing (advanced) shellscripts requires learning awk/sed, and various
>other minor tools (mostly because their features aren't supported by the
>language).  Use of a language with these features builtin lowers the
>learning requirement, or at least puts it all under one roof.
>*improved performance and bytecode-compilability
>*Speedups due to fewer exec calls (for awk/sed/etc)
>
>Reasons NOT to do this would include:
>
>*breaking from standard would mean packages with provided initscripts
>would require a rewrite.
>*slight increase in boot requirements (interpreter and libs must exist
>at least minimally on root partition)
>*probably needs a bit more memory
>
>other bits:
>
>*compatibility could obviously be maintained, as existing shell scripts
>could still be run without changes.
>
>
>Note: I am by no means proposing this as a standard feature of gentoo.
>
>That said, since gentoo already uses python for portage, selecting
>python as the language to use makes sense.  Aside from the re-writes,
>and some other details, I don't see much disadvantage to the above
>design.
>
>Comments appreciated.
>
>--Justin Whitney
>
>
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