Re: [Gnu-arch-users] arch roadmap 1 (and "what's tom up to")

[Aaron Bentley]

Jan Hudec wrote:
> > My question was more to know why Arch need a so specific embedded
> > langage. But i should wait for your third roadmap !
>
>
> For one thing arch needs SOME embeded language. The reason is, if
> nothing else, the number of wrapper and scripts around tla that exist.
> The kind of stuff they do is mostly glueing primitive commands, which is
> too cumbersome to do in C. 

Actually, tla includes some infrastructure for calling user-level 
commands-- "update" actually calls the "replay" or "apply-delta" user 
commands.  So it may not be as cumbersome as you think.

> So the idea is, that tla should have the
> primitive commands in C, cleaned up, simple and flexible. And a simple
> interpreter to build a user friendly interface on top of them.

The plan is *also* to make libtla into a real library, which can then 
have bindings for various languages, scripting or otherwise.  So Furth's 
not necessary for the purpose of creating friendly interfaces.

But there's a lot of sense in mixed-language programming; using a 
scripting language for the high-level stuff, and using C for the 
low-level stuff.  I just don't know whether the advantages of using 
Furth instead of an existing language will outweigh the disadvantages that
- No one knows Furth
- There are no Furth libraries or GPLed code that we can use
- Furth will take time and effort to develop

Aaron
--
Aaron Bentley
Director of Technology
Panometrics, Inc.