Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: Tla spork

[Miles Bader]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 10:38:03AM -0700, Tom Lord wrote:
> There are lots of ways to do that that don't involve adding
> environment variable sensitivity to arch itself.   You could simply 
> wrap arch:
> 
>       tla --hat $HAT "$@"
> 
> or you could do something fancier.   For example, how about a 
> command like:
> 
>       % tla with-constant-params [params] > xtla
>         % chmod u+x xtla
> 
> as in:
> 
>       % tla with-constant-params --hat hacker > xtla
>         % chmod u+x xtla
> 
>         % ./xtla my-hat
>         hacker

Those don't interact well with scripts (and I think any method that requires
you to create an executable file is just slightly odd).

Even if they're often abused, environment variables aren't _always_ an
inappropriate solution ... :-)

Env vars are like dynamic binding in lisp.  Dynamic binding is certainly out
of favor for general use, but implementations usually go to some trouble to
retain it in some form, because occasionally it _is_ the right answer.

-Miles
-- 
P.S.  All information contained in the above letter is false,
      for reasons of military security.