On 18/08/2005, at 7:33 PM, Reyn Vlietstra wrote:

>
> jm, the very simple commands included in my previous post are:
>
>

Thanks for the examples. I'll also have to take a look at the wiki 
you've put up as well.

It's interesting to see this concept being developed by someone. I was 
just think the other day what sort of language would be able to cover 
the full spectrum from command,shell, to application,OS developement. 
As shown in the follow diagram be fore warned that there's a bit of 
hand waving and hair split as the left side of the diagram is exploded 
compared to the right.

<-------------------------------------------------- .....   ----------->
    |        |          |          |                              |
command   shell   shell script   application script            OS kernel


command is things like "run this now", eg, edit file.txt
shell is where you can start chaining of commands, eg, grep file.txt 
"^A" | cut -c 10-15 ...
shell script include start up scripts etc.
application scripts are things which are more involved like dynamic web 
sites, data manipulation, etc.
full applications (not shown) would be things like konqueror or 
openoffice.
and the far right we all now what an OS kernel is.

The point is that a language that fills more of these niches is more 
likely to survive long term than one that one that only fills a 
specific niche. From the lower end, there are contenders like c/c++ but 
these don't move very well towards the command end of the spectrum. In 
the middle there is java which is trying to push towards the left of 
the diagram and rightward with things like javacard, etc. Then there's 
the "scripting languages" like ruby. Ruby started in the "application 
script" area and is pushing downwards with the help of the needed speed 
increase from yarv, but it still lacks the features to let it move any 
lower in that direction. In the other direction, it is being used by 
heretix (www.h-e-r-e-t-i-x.org) for start up scripts and OS 
administration, which I'm sure a few people have already been doing on 
an ad hoc basis. Projects like yours should then move ruby even futher 
towards to command/shell side of the spectrum. The "winner" in one 
respect will be the language which makes this a smooth continuation 
rather than the bumpy road that it currently is at the moment.

Jeff.