On Wednesday, 30.09.2015 at 09:29, Justin Cormack wrote: > On 30 September 2015 at 09:15, Martin Lucina <[email protected]> wrote: > > Have you considered simplifying the syntax even more? If we remove > > everything that's redundant your example from above becomes: > > > > === snip === > > version 20150928 > > > > create hw_coolbeans "Insert coolbeans descr here" > > assimilate hw_virtio > > remove -lrumpkern_sysproxy > > add /home/pooka/startmsg.o > > === snip === > > > > For prior art in this space, take a look at FireHOL, a firewall generator > > using a shell-based DSL for configuration: http://firehol.org/#firehol > > > > Also, how about using the more conventional "include" or "import" instead > > of "assimilate"? > > I really don't see the benefit over this whole thing over a normal > command line for linking, which everyone is familiar with. > > Bake is just link, users know how to link, and making a whole language > for linking just seems over complex.
The linker command line cannot express any of the dependencies between the various system components. Without that, for example, "link in everything for running on KVM, but only with ext2fs support" becomes an impossible task unless the user is a rump kernel expert. This was a question I got at my Xen summit talk, so it's definitely something people care about. Also, it's not like the language is particularly complex, as long as we pick the verbs well. It should be self-evident what a config description is doing. -mato
