Fwd: [EXT] Re: Making sed a literate executable

[Krish Jain]

Hi,

I wanted to propose an idea: make sed a 'Literate Executable' that dumps
its own source-code
tarball to stdout when a new flag is given on the command line.  Basic
idea:  https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3570938

Best,
Krish

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
Date: Fri, Dec 29, 2023 at 12:39 AM
Subject: [EXT] Re: Making sed a literate executable
To: Krish Jain <kjain7@u.rochester.edu>
Cc: <assafgordon@gmail.com>, Terence Kelly <tpkelly@eecs.umich.edu>


On Wed, Dec 27, 2023 at 10:02 PM Krish Jain <kjain7@u.rochester.edu> wrote:

> Hi Mr. Meyering and Mr. Gordon,
>
> I understand that you develop and maintain the sed
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/> program.
>
> I'm writing to propose an enhancement.  If you think the idea is promising
> I
> can implement it and offer it to you for inclusion in sed.  My main
> question
> now is whether you'd consider adding this new feature to the official
> version
> of sed, assuming that my implementation is correct, safe, etc.  Basically,
> I'm
> wondering if you like the new feature.
>
> The proposed enhancement is to make sed a "literate executable" capable of
> outputting its own source code tarball.  Literate executables carry around
> all
> of their own source code (and documentation, and whatever else the tarball
> contains), making it easy for users to scrutinize the exact source
> corresponding to the executable on their $PATH.
>
> A recent paper explains how to make any C/C++ program literate, expands on
> the
> advantages of literate executables, and literate-izes the GNU grep
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/> utility as
> an example:
>
> https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3570938
>
> The paper's author <https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~tpkelly/> (cc:'d) has
> agreed to advise and review my implementation of
> literacy for sed.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Thanks and happy holidays!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Krish Jain <https://www.csug.rochester.edu/u/kjain7/>
>

Hi,

Thanks, but such discussion does not belong in private.
If you'd really like to discuss this, please address your proposal to the
sed-devel@gnu.org mailing list.

>