From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Patrick Donnelly Subject: Re: Python extension commands in git - request for policy change Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:11:55 -0500 Message-ID: References: <20121125024451.1ADD14065F@snark.thyrsus.com> <50B1F684.5020805@alum.mit.edu> <20121212033043.GA24937@thyrsus.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Cc: Sitaram Chamarty , Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy , Michael Haggerty , Felipe Contreras , git@vger.kernel.org To: Eric Raymond X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Wed Dec 12 08:12:14 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TigUH-0007IO-QE for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:12:14 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750914Ab2LLHL4 (ORCPT ); Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:11:56 -0500 Received: from mail-ob0-f174.google.com ([209.85.214.174]:46089 "EHLO mail-ob0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750862Ab2LLHL4 (ORCPT ); Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:11:56 -0500 Received: by mail-ob0-f174.google.com with SMTP id ta14so295428obb.19 for ; Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:11:55 -0800 (PST) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:x-gm-message-state; bh=8u9P0T/5LkZaUvNtb0VKcoWLdJlYnXmAQjmH0xiel3E=; b=NFCwixtueB3iVNpSUopGjvBZdVzpobkiPsgGEemjakcZkEuxEKx/U0FvEmnafU3K1O bdBade5P1M5x/YZQ8uxtKfTMCHtFJ5T5mpe7VTCcIT00kVS6ni/fQdQRnitbQ0bNHj5m Qy0K/nSAqHr9da9fvvnXESRIxCyONRO1wqRU6w+Ozv8peIhq67qaMaYvBZiY0liVl6sK A6EEsuhDz/61tv4RCtN0pkvAPcaDwhWyPa3lSI3LKI0wbyqfBjgh5oldL+eSJ0CeVewV fIVvUToMIxGWF8wCKhRCOc1i/XIRJvHha6X5y4tCsF9ookBetkBu/thHnhoh8mnY1e8m 4hAg== Received: by 10.60.0.199 with SMTP id 7mr7868oeg.139.1355296315641; Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:11:55 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.76.28.101 with HTTP; Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:11:55 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20121212033043.GA24937@thyrsus.com> X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQkwOpTGJN1XCmc4Fi5B1EhS3u9TTYMsr/ZwR/7fKBvsqs4N+WKGjmp1P3R2PEg25cLUQ343 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Hi Eric, On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 10:30 PM, Eric S. Raymond wrote: > It might be a good fit for extending git; I wouldn't be very surprised if > that worked. However, I do have concerns about the "Oh, we'll just > lash together a binding to C" attitude common among lua programmers; I > foresee maintainability problems and the possibility of slow death by > low-level details as that strategy tries to scale up. I think this is quite a prediction? Could you give an example scenario? How would another language (e.g. Python) mitigate this? > And, of course, one problem with calling back into C a lot is that > you walk back into C's resource-management issues. C resource management can be effectively dealt with by relying on Lua's GC to track C resources via userdata. > My sense is that git's use cases are better served by a glue language > in the Python/Perl/Ruby class rather than an extension langage. But > my mind is open on this issue. I don't see how these languages are more appropriate based on your concerns. -- - Patrick Donnelly