What's Happened Since February? (opens in new tab)

(oilshell.org)

66 pointsjpittis6y ago20 comments

20 comments

Seems like a very confusing name for a shell, seeing this without knowing the context I saw 'Oil', 'Shell' and assumed that it was about some oil spill or event with Shell Oil that happened in February I was unaware of. Looks like an interesting project regardless.

chubot6y ago

I wrote a FAQ answering this: http://www.oilshell.org/blog/2019/06/17.html#toc_0

richardhod6y ago

Agreed. Also mods, please can we alter the title to something more descriptive and less baity?

Brakenshire6y ago

I’d say the developer is making their life much more difficult by using such a confusing name, which is a pity because the project looks really interesting.

canadaduane6y ago

Oil is a promising attempt to make a backwards-compatible but progressively better and more sane unix shell. I look forward to trying it out!

RobertRoberts6y ago

I use unix (linux) every day, what does Oil fix that is wrong with bash/shell? (I am not a power user per se, so genuinely curious what I am missing out on)

yorwba6y ago

"Why Create a New Unix Shell?": http://www.oilshell.org/blog/2018/01/28.html

If you want just one example, automatic completion in bash uses a bash parser written in bash, incompatible with the bash interpreter's own parser. OSH uses the same parser for both the interpreter and the completion engine. https://github.com/oilshell/oil/issues/208#issuecomment-4496...

iimblack6y ago

Here's a page from the developer explaining this: http://www.oilshell.org/blog/2018/01/28.html

hawski6y ago

The most interesting part for me is MyPy to C++ conversion. I understand it's easier that way. It certainly makes it easier to package Oil. It's a necessary step to bootstrap all the work. Certainly such a conversion tool would be in interests of wider community, so I wonder is there any more movement in the area.

I have a small hope that it will eventually go off C++, because it may be impossible to change mind of significant part of Unix community. But it's all good, because work involved is outstanding already.

winter_blue6y ago

A slight tangent: I discovered the Zephyr ASDL (Abstract Syntax Description Language) by looking at the oilshell blog: https://www.oilshell.org/blog/tags.html?tag=ASDL#ASDL

There are interesting posts about the ADSL, as well as about implementing interpreters in that blog. Definitely piqued my interest as someone passionate about language design.

simonebrunozzi6y ago

The "Oil Project" was an open-source education initiative run by Marco De Rossi in Italy, ~10 years ago. It turned into WeSchool, a successful education business in Italy.

ChrisRR6y ago

Why is that website so narrow? It only takes up about 20% of the width of my monitor

frou_dh6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238739

tenpies6y ago

I actually quite like it though. Takes less eye movement to traverse along each sentences.

OJFord6y ago

I think it's a mistake, it's due to:

    .skinny {
        width: 30em;
    }

on `body`. To me at least `.skinny` suggests there's a non-skinny style it should be picking up on non-mobile/small screens, but isn't.

edit: Ah, yes, there is also a `.wider` (not being used) at `45em`.

russh6y ago

I like it. I can Zoom in 300% and easily read the text with my outdated prescription glasses.

bovermyer6y ago

To answer your question directly: because it's more legible and follows sane typographical practices.

Also: why in the nine hells are you critiquing the design of the site instead of talking about the content of the article?

michaelcampbell6y ago

About the same as the main page of this site.

charliesharding6y ago

mobile first! :D

wnevets6y ago

I think that's actually mobile only

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