In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:41:37 +0100
<44427003.bGMWPWkaaQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> You use Command Lines all the time and don't know it!!!
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Man, the heat Linux catches over command lines! The flames! The trolls!
> | The clueless screaming for help! And all the while, command lines are
> | right under your nose the whole time! Yes, even on the most mousy,
> | GUI-driven, WIMPy, point-n-drool interface, whether it be Macs or
> | Microsofties, you're typing commands into prompts every day!
> `----
>
> http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?p=156&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
>
> Quite a juvenile post, but a valid point is being made. No-one should fear
> the command-line interface, which is already mastered by all. Of relevance:
>
> http://www.yubnub.org/ (Social command line for the Web)
It's a multilayer problem, as usual. One might structure it thusly:
[1] Icon on desktop and/or action mapping.
The user clicks on the icon and activates something.
[2] Activation script, program, or command line.
The activation involves running a script, program, or command line.
Scripts are handled by a shell (which is a program parsing command
lines; there are several). A program can be run directly using execl()
or execv() but most systems simply use system(), which passes the
command line to a subshell -- /bin/sh -c "command line", or, in C form,
execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", commandLine, (char *) 0); or the far
simpler system(commandLine) -- the former needing a fork() as well.
[3] The program proper.
In many cases the program is the shell, which reads the
script and parses it. Ultimately, it subinvokes programs
using execl() or execv(). The kernel will get a request,
probably __NR_execve, though its callgate.
[4] The program pages.
The kernel now reads (some of) the program's pages into memory, sets
up a task structure/process structure, and lets it go on its merry way.
The file is expected to be formatted in a certain fashion; I'll refer
interested users to the ELF specifications.
[5] The microprocessor.
The microprocessor sees data coming in -- code instructions -- and
alters its state appropriately.
So where is the "command line", really? Depends on whom is
interpreting it. Windows, after all, has shell32.dll,
which is a sort of graphical variant of bash (although a
more appropriate analogue would be nautilus or konqueror).
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Windows Vista. Because it's time to refresh your hardware. Trust us.
|
|
