Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!tness1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Time is of the essence on IPC.
Message-ID: <1814@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 88 05:32:33 GMT
References: <1571@louie.udel.EDU> <353@brambo.UUCP> <1661@louie.udel.EDU> <48285@sun.uucp>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 40

In article <48285@sun.uucp>, cmcmanis@pepper.UUCP writes:
> In article <885@nuchat.UUCP> peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
> [Paraphrased : "What do you want out of aREXX?"]
> >SO THAT PROGRAMS THAT DON'T KNOW FROM AREXX CAN USE IT.
> 
> Sorry Peter, there is simply no way that this will work. Programs *must*
> know about IPC to use it, in the case of the PIPE: device the programs
> already know about filesystem semantics and the pipe: device implements
> them, so programs that know about how to use the filesystem can use
> PIPE:.

How many programs out there *don't* know how to use the filesystem?

> But what is painfully clear is that the filesystem semantics are
> insufficient for all of the things that people want to do.

But filesystem semantics are sufficient for *most* of the things people
want to do. What they're not sufficient for is hard real-time stuff
like (say) SMUS players or MIDI drivers. And even there the problem isn't
the filesystem semantics, it's the filesystem speed.

> Think about the architecture of how programs communicate, or don't 
> communicate. When filesystem semantics are sufficient, use pipes, when
> they aren't you need something more powerful. I think aREXX is a good
> stab at that more powerful facility. 

When I get my next royalty check I'll check it out.

One problem with AREXX that nobody's really addressed yet is that it's not
going to be usable by novices... people for whom the CLI is terra incognito.
One outcome of this process should be something that can be used to sell
Amigas to normal people.

After all, that was one of the original goals.

The patch-panel would be a good start. Particularly since it could also be
used to sell UNIX...
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.