CFT: Graphics support for /boot/loader

[Peter Jeremy]

On 2009-Feb-08 14:35:02 +0100, Oliver Fromme <olli at lurza.secnetix.de> wrote:
>The actual menu contents are in the beastie.4th file, just
>like for the old text menu.  So, yes, you'd need to speak
>FORTH in order to change that.

Well, you need the ability to read the existing FORTH code and
extrapolate a bit.  You don't need to be a FORTH guru.

>Would there be strong resistance if I tried to replace FICL
>with something else that is not as brain-knotting as FORTH?

I disagree that FORTH is brain-knotting.  As a small, general-
purpose language that is close to the hardware, I don't think
you can do much better.  What are you proposing as a replacement?

>Just to name an example, I once wrote a bourne-shell-like
>parser that would not be difficult to embed.

/boot/loader isn't just a matter of parsing an rc.conf style
config file.  It needs the ability to talk to disk and physical
memory and the whole thing needs to be fairly small.

If you look at the installed base of computers, FORTH is
probably the most popular language for bootloaders.

-- 
Peter Jeremy
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