Finally! This has been the last hurdle for heavy adoption, plus the size
savings on scripts will be a game-changer. Good job team!
On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 11:15:43PM +0000, Laurent Bercot wrote:
>
> Hello,
> execline-2.4.0.0 is out.
>
> As you all know by now, the main obstacle to adoption of skaware by
> distributions and mainstream Unix folks is the user interface; so, the
> obvious next improvements to skarnet.org software is to provide
> interfaces people are comfortable with. This is true for s6 + s6-rc,
> but this is also true for execline.
>
> One of the main criticisms that execline gets is that for its purpose,
> i.e. light scripting and gluing components together, people are already
> used to the standard Unix shell, and have trouble wrapping their minds
> around a new scripting tool with a very different syntax.
> I am convinced that execline offers significant benefits over the
> shell in certain circumstances - in particular, it is much easier to
> autogenerate; still, I want to make it easier for regular shell users
> to approach and understand execline.
>
> So, with user-friendliness as a major goal, with version 2.4.0.0,
> some execline commands have changed names. Commands that provide
> equivalent functionality of a shell construct are now named after
> the shell's syntax for that construct. Specifically:
>
> background is now named &
> backtick is now named `
> define is now named =
> dollarat is now named $_at_
> elglob is now named *
> fdclose is now named >&-
> fdmove is now named >&
> fdswap is now named <>
> foreground is now named ;
> getpid is now named !
> heredoc is now named <<
> homeof is now named ~
> if is now named &&
> importas is now named $
> pipeline is now named |
> redirfd is now named <
>
> I believe this renaming allows users coming from the shell to get
> acquainted with execline without changing too many of their habits
> and smoothly transition to a new approach to scripting. For instance,
> the examples/etc/execline-shell script now reads:
>
> #!/bin/execlineb -S0
> ` -n home { && -nt { ` -n user { id -un } $ -u user user $ -D $user USER
> USER
> < -w 2 /dev/null ~ ${USER} } echo / }
> $ -u home home $ -D $home HOME HOME
> tryexec { ${HOME}/.execline-shell $_at_ }
> /bin/sh $_at_
>
> which indubitably mimics the readability of a shell script much more
> than the same script using the old execline command names ever did.
>
> An added benefit of this change is brevity. Where previous names of
> execline commands were verbose, and execline scripts could be long
> to type and annoying to read, the new names are very short, which
> allows execline to approach the terseness and reader-friendliness of
> the shell. For instance, one of the execline quines now reads as such:
>
> #!/bin/execlineb
> = e "#!/bin/execlineb
> = e $q${E}${q}
> env e=$e
> = q ${b}${q}
> = b ${b}${b}
> $ E e
> echo $e"
> env e=$e
> = q \"
> = b \\
> $ E e
> echo $e
>
> which is as short as a quine will ever be, while definitely looking
> more like a shell script than quines for previous execline versions.
>
> Note that for execline, command brevity also means that you can fit
> longer scripts into the limits of a command line, so the new version
> allows you to write more featureful, more complete scripts without
> hitting execline's inherent limitations. The benefits are numerous.
>
> I sincerely hope this change will help smooth the learning curve of
> the execline syntax, and increase adoption of the language among
> newbies and die-hard Unix veterans alike.
>
> https://skarnet.org/software/execline/
> git://git.skarnet.org/execline
>
> Enjoy,
> Bug-reports welcome.
>
> --
> Laurent
>
--
Colin Booth
Received on Sun Apr 01 2018 - 14:30:21 UTC