Subject: Re: random installation related points
To: None <tech-install@netbsd.org>
From: Matthias Buelow <mkb@altair.mayn.de>
List: tech-install
Date: 07/28/1999 05:18:09
Luke Mewburn <lukem@cs.rmit.edu.au> wrote:

>	b) Do we really need ncurses? libslang (pkgsrc/devel/libslang)
>	   gives similar functionality, and in my experience in using
>	   either ncurses or slang for lynx, it was much easier
>	   getting slang into lynx and it gave more features.

But curses is standardized; slang is not.

>	c) I feel hesitant about using a language which not many
>	   developers know (scheme). For that matter, why not use
>	   python?  From what I've seen and used, python is fairly
>	   easy to understand and looks clean as a language.

So is scheme.  Python assigns semantics as part of the indentation
level, the last time I looked at it;  that alone should make any
serious programmer turn away from it in agony as fast as (s)he can
move her/his head.

>(Just to stir the pot a bit...)

Dito.
All installers I have come across so far were crap (including NetBSD
sysinst, although there are worse ones).  Using extension languages
in a simple install program is somehow overkill;  a properly programmed
C program should do well, considering that it will be crap anyways.

mkb