I would like to compliment the freepascal team for a remarkable unix
programming environment. With too many people racing to oblivion, it is
important to recognize such excellence.
I've been making progress reconstructing the old Bellcore MGR program
using freepascal. Along the way reading and learning old unix and
linux. One feature of old AT&T unix is programmable streams. This
feature is not included in linux. To simplify use of streams, linux
just provides the basic kernel streams system calls. AT&T had highly
developed, programmable streams included in the kernel. But there seems
no reason to bury programmable streams in the kernel. Instead, streams
should be programmable in user space.
Of particular interest to me is streams multiplexing. Streams
multiplexing exists in the linux kernel, but only in limited,
predefined forms; for example, pseudo-terminals. AT&T invented generic
streams multiplexing in the 1980s anticipating internetworking
communications. AT&T allowed great flexibility in the design.
Enter freepascal. Looking at the source for the linux unit (sorry, I
still mostly use fpc 1.0.10), the AssignStream function is a very
clever, high level unix function. Features like this will make
reconstructing MGR comprehensible.
Thank you for all the excellent freepascal development tools.
Rick.
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