Re: creature = `feep

[Zalman Stern <zstern@mv.us.adobe.com>]

I'm not sure external backgrounding would preclude job control. The  
external backgrounder could bind stdin and stdout to a session server  
mechanism. Other shell commands would connect up to the server to get  
output and send input. The server would maintain a list of processes  
etc. ^Z might not be implementable unless the shell knew about this  
server stuff and "anticipated" the possibility of disconnecting the  
process. However hooking the exec mechanism makes even that  
relatively easy. Small amounts of es code gluing together a few  
external C programs would do the trick. Sort of like an inside out  
version of screen.

I'm not advocating doing this or anything, but it might be worth  
thinking about. Anybody who has dealt with the code for job control  
in various UNIX shells (e.g. csh) and in the kernel tty driver can  
appreciate the need for a cleaner solution. An IPC mechanism will be  
required of course.

(Actually, I'm not sure about this whole shell thing anymore. I want  
a powerful but small programming language embedded in a graphical  
environment, plus a really good set of tool functions and programs.  
Maybe I should start by getting an X11 screen and running sam...)

-Z-