Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Bash on the ST again
Message-ID: <1990Aug21.033205.11509@math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 21 Aug 90 03:32:05 GMT
References: <5589@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
Lines: 45

In article <5589@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> joe@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu (Joseph T. Rohde) writes:
>Was there ever a final discusion on where (if) bash can be
>found in the USA?
>
>I have a dream.....Picture this....
>	Bash is aware of rtx and allows pipes and background
>	jobs when it sees '.ttp or .tos'.  Ahh to dream.
>
>Joe
>ps.  Since this will probably remain a gream, can anyone
>send me the going price for MT-Csh.  If it's close to what I
>remember I still can't afford it...oh well.

In fact, I have been working on this very thing. The only thing I'm
stumbling over right now is implementing a good signal() suite.
Pipes and background jobs are a piece of cake, RTX is really good
for this sort of stuff. (I have another problem, regarding fork, but
I think I have a workaround now...)

Also, allowing pipes or background jobs doesn't depend on the filename
extension. Many .prg's seem to be meant to be run from a CLI. The shell
will set up descriptors 0, 1, & 2 as specified by the command line, and
then it's up to the run-time startup code in the executable file whether
or not to pay attention to any of it.

One other problem is that once you have this sort of shell running,
you really need the equivalent of the ps command to help keep
track of what's going on in your system. I'm still trying to figure
this out, probably going to try using the same scheme that MT-Csh
uses. (Which I suppose is the best solution anyway, since that will
provide compatibility with a few other MT-C tools as well.) But
that leaves me with duplicating David Beckemeyer's efforts, since he's
already written a perfectly good ps program in his MT-C package. Doesn't
seem all that worthwhile. Sigh.

It's all well and good to bring up GNU utilities on a running Unix
system, but trying to add them a piece at a time to the ST shows you
just how much is lacking in the ST's OS. Getting a good environment
set up takes a lot of groundwork, even given a good kernel (such as
Micro-RTX).
--
  -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan
  one million data bits stored on a chip, one million bits per chip
	if one of those data bits happens to flip,
		one million data bits stored on the chip...