John asks:
|> This reminds me: why aren't the Redhat (or any other linux
|> / unix vendor) boot scripts in Python, too? Whenever I've
|> made small changes to them, I've wished they were!
I'd guess for a couple of reasons:
1) large installed base of boot scripts requiring only
classic Unix shell and commands mean that any such
script requiring more would have to overcome a
large hurdle.
2) large number of people who know enough to hack/read
existing scripts, who would revolt at seeing a script
in some language that they didn't understand or that
wasn't pre-installed on their system -- again, a large
hurdle to overcome.
As a couple of other data points suggesting the above limits may
be relevant answers, note that Red Hat's installer (internal
project codename Anaconda) is written in Python, and that the
runtime support for Intel's new ia64 "efi" bootrom environment
(sort of "Dos in a rom, redesigned from scratch") optionally
supports Python, but not any major unix shell. In both cases,
one sees similar sorts of problems, by similar people, being
solved in Python, when the installed inertia of script and
programmer population is not so large.
To put a different slant on it -- if I were in charge of defining
some system init scripts, I would use shell, and only shell.
I want to rely on as little of the system functioning as need
be during the init sequence, and I have to have shell, and
shell is sufficient, so shell it is, and that's all it is.
--
I won't rest till it's the best ...
Manager, Linux System Software
Paul Jackson <pj at sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373
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