From: arne@vajhoej.dk   
      
   On 12/13/2025 8:45 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Sat, 06 Dec 2025 11:42:47 +0100, Marc Van Dyck wrote:   
   >> User written lexical functions, on the other hand, would be a real   
   >> bonus. There are, for one, still many parts of the operating system for   
   >> which you need to get information, and the only possible way to do it is   
   >> to parse some output (think of everything TCP/IP, for example), while   
   >> there is a callable interface available to get the info properly.   
   >   
   > POSIXish shells seem to feel less need for such built-in extensions.   
   >   
   > Is this a reflection on the ease of doing command substitutions in them,   
   > vis-à-vis DCL?   
      
   The Linux way is pseudo files instead of lexical functions.   
      
   The difference between:   
      cat some pseudo file   
      process output   
   and:   
      execute some program   
      process output   
   is practically none.   
      
   While the difference between:   
       $ res = f$something()   
   and:   
      execute some program   
      process output   
   is big.   
      
   So no surprise that VMS people see the need but Linux does not.   
      
   Arne   
      
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