Re: [9fans] I suppose if there's no other way to do it (a quote from the tcl web site)

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>]

*not* providing a library for these things is the key.
for example, page doesn't link against the jpeg library.  
it just runs jpg.  nedmail doesn't link against the mime
library, it uses upas/fs and marshal.  

if plan 9 provided fancy library interfaces for such things,
we might be temted by the sirens "shared libraries" and "oop
languages".

- erik

On Fri Aug 11 02:22:13 CDT 2006, leimy2k@gmail.com wrote:
> On 8/10/06, Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov> wrote:
> > "Sure, some other languages have libraries for accessing web or ftp
> > sites, or looking inside zip files. But how many provide an open ended
> > and extensible system that allows you to access any such resource using
> > the same I/O commands you'd use with regular disk files?"
> >
> 
> C++ iostreams perhaps?  I've got one for sockets, pipes etc...  Now
> that's not the same as FTP sites and zip files, but it could be done.
> Then you can use the same iterators and algorithms to glue it all
> together.  In fact, I think I saw a zlibstream once.  I was thinking
> of writing one.
> 
> It's done via a blend of template generic programming and OOP.  Too
> bad C++ quickly becomes quite confusing and is very easy to abuse and
> make difficult to maintain (probably an understatement).
> 
> Plan 9 gives me a lot of that power right at the shell because the OS
> multiplexes 9P so well.
> 
> 
> > hmm. in the language library? Well, I guess if that's all you can do ...
> > but this is a really odd quote.
> >
> > And I actually like tcl ...
> >
> > ron