Re: [9fans] rc vs sh

[Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Kurt H Maier <khm-9@intma.in> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 04:52:34PM +0200, Lucio De Re wrote:
>> Or are you oriented towards kiloLOCs of test code to see which
>> features are implemented and provide compatability a la autoconf?
>
> Excellent example of a false dilemma.  I'm oriented towards exerting the
> effort to make something that isn't shitty.

Wonderful!  Please point me to your new programming language so I can
have a look?

> I'm at peace with the go
> developers decision to avoid that effort.  Are you?

So are you saying that because they use bash to build the system, the
language is shitty?  Or just the build system is shitty?

> Anyway, bash uses autoconf as well.  So all you've done is push the mess
> one step farther away from your code.  Why not just cut the cord?  I'm
> hearing "shell scripting is easy" and I'm hearing "acceptance testing is
> too hard."  Which is it?  I can write portable shell scripts, but the
> idiots on golang-nuts have explicitly said they don't WANT portable
> shell scripts.  They want to rely on bash, and all the GNU bullshit that
> brings with it.

Writing a shell script is easy.  Writing a shell script to build a
non-trivial piece of software across $n$ different platforms is hard.

I can't speak for the Go team, but I suspect their decision is a
pragmatic compromise: should they spend their (limited) time creating
and maintaining a portable version of 'rc' that can be built (how,
exactly?  With a script that's just a straight run of commands or
something?) on a bunch of different platforms so that they can write
some beautiful script to build Go, or should they produce some lowest
common denominator shell script in the most common shell out there
that builds the system and then spend the time they save concentrating
on building a cool programming language?

I don't think the gain from the former approach is really worth the
cost to the latter.

To put it another way, why not cut the cord?  Because it takes time
away from doing something they consider more important.

More generally, if your impression of Go as a language ("Typical go
shit...") is based on what shell they chose for the build script, then
I'm not sure you have your priorities straight.

          - Dan C.