[snipping down to the core issue] Roland Mainz writes: > than it looks like since AST allows to mix&match pattern types). My > question would be: Is that really neccesary to rewrite the code in libc > just that some applications in OS/Net can use this extensions to > patterns ? AFAIK it would be MUCH more economical to just use the libast > code instead (which implements the varius features with POSIX as basis).
That's exactly the problem. It's not necessarily a matter of libc versus all other libraries, but a matter of system integration. Having (for example) one interface that provides "regexps" and another that provides "Joe's much nicer regexps" simply turns the OS itself into a dumping ground. Ksh93 isn't the *ONLY* or very last project in the world, and as everyone seems to think he's well-qualified to create the perfect Second System version of pick-your-favorite-basic-function, we're going to end up with 22 different regexps and 37 printfs, each slightly but inexplicably better than the others. In that direction lay chaos. To avoid the potential for chaos, and to the extent we need the functionality provided by this library across the consolidation, we have an _obligation_ to examine how the rest of the features in the existing system are either supplanted by it, can be implemented in terms of it, or perhaps can remain safely separate. Thus, I dislike the option of using libast as the flavor of the month for implementing applications, and simply letting other interfaces rot. That might be acceptable for other systems, and it's clearly the right thing to do for an _unbundled_ (separate) component, as ksh93 has been in the past, but as an integrated feature in Open Solaris, I don't see how it can be acceptable. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677 _______________________________________________ opensolaris-code mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/opensolaris-code
