Programming with DSL

Forum: Programming and Scripting
Topic: Programming with DSL
started by: twrensch

Posted by twrensch on Aug. 02 2005,15:41

Quiet here.

I've been using DSL for development work - I use mostly scripting languages for research prototypes and such. Currently most of my work is in Lua.

Lua is a great match for DSL - not only is a version of Lua 4 built into the base (It's used for many of the GUI tools like the control panel), but a more up-to-date Lua 5 can be downloaded in binary format and installed with no problem. It's only 116K.

I've installed Ruby and Python and they work well. I have also installed the gcc package and I find that it is not very useful. Too many libraries and header files missing.

I would like to see a .uci with GCC and a nice selection of header files and libraries. I'm considering putting together a .uci for Squeak Smalltalk as well.

Anyone else using DSL for development work?

- Tom

(As background: I run DSL off a 256M USB Flashdrive on a fanless, diskless computer).

Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 02 2005,15:59

That would be a huge extension =o)

I have two "full" linux systems which I use for compiling applications (I don't know programming), so gcc and headers just haven't been a worthwhile venture for me.

I do, however, have a mild obsession with scripting. I'm not saying I'm damn good, but i enjoy it. Bash is essential. I've been slowly building my knowledge of Flua for the past few months, and a couple of days ago also began to pick up Tcl (look for an updated tcltk extension soon). The thing about these two that really impresses me is they can be used either as straight script in the way Bash is used, or can be extended to provide a way to build graphical interfaces....i think it's amazing that you can to this using a text file, no compiling needed.

I don't really have any desire at this point to get into more complex programming, but there is a lot a person can do with a little scripting knowledge and some creativity.

Posted by kopsis on Aug. 02 2005,16:13

I've built a few kernel modules using my own gcc-2.95 extension but that's relatively easy since you don't need much in the way of libraries. DSL is actually fairly close (in terms of software) to an embedded PowerPC target I'm developing for (2.4.27 kernel, busybox, etc.) so running it in QEMU gave me a great way to do kernel module development on a virtual target before my hardware was available

Now that I'm using DSL more and more as a desktop OS, I would like to be able to build some GTK+ 2.x apps but my initial half hearted attempt to get all the necessary -dev packages installed through apt proved fruitless. I agree that a nice big dsl-dev.uci package with a boatload of header files and libraries would be nice, but I've a hunch that setting up such a beast would be a major undertaking.

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 02 2005,17:08

Of course the header files are usually located somewhere besides /opt, so such a *.uci package would be a special undertaking.

But I am sure that with enough dedication and creativity it can be done. Good Luck.

Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 02 2005,21:09

Fortunately most applications allow the use of CPPFLAGS, pointing to specific includes directories.

Posted by DeeJay on Aug. 03 2005,13:20

Quote (twrensch @ Aug. 02 2005,11:41)

I've installed Ruby and Python and they work well.

Tom, could you say whether you 'installed' Ruby and Python using the packages dated 2004/07/18 in the .../mydsl/system section of the MyDSL repository, or did you get them by some other means?

Thanks - DeeJay

Posted by John on Aug. 04 2005,03:19

I am pretty sure TCC (Tiny C Compiler) is included in the install (At least it was in earlier versions .9x vesrions going to downlosd the latest)

< http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/tcc/tcc-doc.html >

The above URL has the docs on how to use it.

Posted by twrensch on Aug. 04 2005,15:22

Quote (DeeJay @ Aug. 03 2005,09:20)

could you say whether you 'installed' Ruby and Python using the packages dated 2004/07/18 in the .../mydsl/system section of the MyDSL repository, or did you get them by some other means?

I used the MyDSL packages in the repository. I don't recall the dates, but the timing is such that I should have used those packages.

I admit to only poking around a bit with Ruby, as I don't know the language well. I did a few more meaningful things with Python.

- Tom

Posted by DeeJay on Aug. 04 2005,16:24

Quote (twrensch @ Aug. 04 2005,11:22)

I used the MyDSL packages in the repository.

Thanks Tom

DeeJay

Posted by twrensch on Aug. 05 2005,15:13

Quote (Guest @ Aug. 03 2005,23:19)

I vaguely recall playing with the TCC MyDSL extension when I first looked at DSL. Doesn't seem to be available now.

I downloaded TCC and recompiled it to run under /opt. No problem at all. I'm going to try to get a sufficient group of libraries and header files installed under /opt/tcc to make it worthwhile and try some tests.

Of course the big problem is that this is a C compiler, not C++. That limits its usefulness for compiling source programs. It's also not retargetable, which limits its usefulness for embedded development work.

Posted by John on Aug. 06 2005,16:41

Quote

I vaguely recall playing with the TCC MyDSL extension when I first looked at DSL. Doesn't seem to be available now.

TCC is included in the base packages at least since v .94. I downloaded 1.4 and tested to see if it was still there, (It is). Open the shell and do tcc -v and it shows that yes it is there. Cpp, libc6, and libstdc++ are also base pacakges.

I agree TCC does have limited uses however it self-releying and small (No Need for a linker or an asembler).

The GCC & Make DSL for v .80 is here < http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub....cc1.dsl >

I haven't played with it for version 1.4 but I did get it running along with MinGW Studio on DSL versions in the .9x range. Unfortunatly MinGW Studio can not be ditributed without violating the terms of the GPL and its main page is down (The author tried to mix a freeware license with GPL code violating the terms of the GPLed portions but couldn't seperate thier code and you would really have to google it to find copies of it on the internet -copies are still out there though...)