[Oberon] A technote for automatically running batch job on system startup

Sun Aug 2 18:41:51 CEST 2020

Jörg has it right... I am just asking the system to do automatically what a
user might otherwise do manually. This is only one step less simplistic
than artificially generating mouse movement and click messages and sending
those to the Frame of an opened text, which I started doing but then
decided was too much of a hack. TextFrames already knows how to call
things, I figured I could just ask it nicely to do that for me.

I'll save the task of inventing yet another scripting language for later
when (if) I think it might be an improvement to what we already have!

Jörg's suggestion would also work but I observed that many commands one
might like to put in a batch script presume that there is an open TextFrame
that they are within. It seemed simplest just to open such a frame and
convince it to do something that it already has the logic to do.

Jörg's suggestion has the virtue of not requiring a recompilation of the
Outer Core so long as the signature of System.Mod does not change.

However, with the addition of a CallMsg to TextFrames I can also imagine a
background task that runs a script periodically (e.g. cron,) etc. so the
addition of a CallMsg may be worth the bother of recompiling everything
that depends on TextFrames.Mod which is, well, pretty much everything.

Thanks for taking a look at the note,
Chuck

On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 9:16 AM Jörg <joerg.straube at iaeth.ch> wrote:

> Chuck‘s modification was not about necessarily batching something
> (Batching was only his motivation) but his modification automatically
> opened a file on startup and executed the first command in that file, might
> be a Batch.Run but could also be Emulator.Start or WebBrowser.Open.
>
> Thinking of it, another approach would have been to only add some lines of
> code in System.Mod opening a file and execute the first command in it.
>
> br
> Jörg
>
> > Am 02.08.2020 um 18:02 schrieb Skulski, Wojciech <
> skulski at pas.rochester.edu>:
> >
> > Joerg:
> >
> >  batch commands almost by definition should run in background. In *nix
> batch commands are executed with a scripting language. I thought that both
> Michael and Andreas are moving in that direction, where the script is
> simply a sequence of Oberon commands. I thought that the design pattern is
> to parse the text file, figure out where is the next piece "Mod.Proc
> <parameters>", set Oberon.Par to it, and call the usual mechanism. A
> practical problem was lack of the return code, and it was implemented. The
> modification of the OS architecture was pretty minimal.
> >
> > I also noted that compiling a sequence of files is a form of batch. This
> mechanism is already implemented. It can be probably extended to a more
> general batch processing. It would not require major modifications of the
> OS.
> >
> > What I just said is probably sketchy. Excuse me if I am missing
> something major.
> >
> > ojtek
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Oberon [oberon-bounces at lists.inf.ethz.ch] on behalf of Joerg [
> joerg.straube at iaeth.ch]
> > Sent: Sunday, August 2, 2020 11:44 AM
> > To: ETH Oberon and related systems
> > Subject: [EXT]  Re: [Oberon] A technote for automatically running batch
> job on  system startup
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> > Do I understand correctly, you modified TextFrames and System and have
> to recompile everything.
> >
> > I wonder whether it would work as well to introduce a new „batch
> document“ type (something like BatchFrames inherited from TextFrames where
> you only add your new CallMsg?
> > And let System.Mod import your new BatchFrames.
> >
> > You would not have to recompile everything. It‘s an add-on to the system
> and only the implementation of System would change. System should not even
> get a new key...
> >
> > Or do I miss something?
> >
> > Jörg
> >
> > Am 02.08.2020 um 16:52 schrieb Charles Perkins <chuck at kuracali.com>:
> >
> > 
> > Hello everybody,
> >
> > I wrote a note on how to have Oberon automatically run a startup script.
> I introduced two small changes to TextFrames.Mod (five lines total)
> introducing a 'Call Message' and then handling that message with a call to
> the Call procedure, and three small changes to System.Mod (eight lines
> total) introducing two variables, opening a viewer with a predetermined
> text file, and then sending the call message to the viewer at the end of
> system initialization.
> >
> > https://github.com/io-core/technotes/blob/main/technote013.md<
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_io-2Dcore_technotes_blob_main_technote013.md&d=DwMFaQ&c=kbmfwr1Yojg42sGEpaQh5ofMHBeTl9EI2eaqQZhHbOU&r=uUiA_zLpwaGJIlq-_BM9w1wVOuyqPwHi3XzJRa-ybV0&m=QkKd4wswN9l1hMI7w1KfpHCUMrO4LIfJd76z61aK_8M&s=VScQlYuMBeHcSs_DeuNJsch9nj8UZDeQUgehsRN86z0&e=
> >
> >
> > I used Michael Schierl's Batch.Mod for the actual batching of commands
> but Andreas Pirklbauer's system would have worked just as well, or any
> other batching or script system. The above changes merely call the first
> command in a text file, the rest of what happens is up to that command.
> >
> > I did this to make building and testing my own system more automatic but
> I thought I'd share in case anyone found it interesting or useful
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Chuck
> > --
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