[comp.sys.amiga] Is ARP dead?

hammond@cs.albany.edu (William F Hammond) (12/31/90)

In a previous article Kent Paul Dolan writes:

> From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan)
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
> Subject: Re: VLT Help needed
> Message-ID: <1990Dec30.163531.22293@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
> Date: 30 Dec 90 16:35:31 GMT
> References: <8pwxo8v@Unify.Com>
> Distribution: na
> Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix
> Lines: 29
> 
> . . .
> "ARP" is the AmigaDOS Replacement Project, a cooperative PD code effort
> that got off to a fair start, but died for lack of interest with the
> code still buggy and the source unavailable to fix it up. . . .

"ARP" is dead?  Or is it merely on hold waiting for OS 2.0 to mature?
The current version is widely used here, and it seems to be pretty clean.

>  . . .                                                     It had the
> advantage that the library and executables were small and did a few nice
> things that AmigaDOS didn't, ...

Well, there is also the Shell which features
  (1) commmand line substitution
  (2) support for concurrent piping (i.e., "PIP:")
  (3) scripts on the fly (simply pipe your script into "Execute")
  (4) modest enhancements in the Shell script language

> ...                                the _BIG_ disadvantage that they were
> incompatible with the CLI script and wildcard formats.  . . .

A few native scripts will break when run with ARP commands.  The few
failures of backward compatibility are documented, and, in any case,
are justified by a trade-off for the increased power of the ARP commands
in the hands of an interactive user.

> . . .
> AmigaOS has long passed the point where ARP is useful or safe.

But while we're still waiting for OS 2.0, most of my colleagues with Amigas
are still using ARP.

> Kent, the man from xanth.
> <xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>

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William F. Hammond                   Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics
518-442-4625                         SUNYA, Albany, NY 12222
hammond@leah.albany.edu              wfh58@albnyvms.bitnet
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