> On Jun 9, 2020, at 8:44 PM, Chris Muller <asqueaker at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> > On 2020-06-09, at 11:52 AM, David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com> wrote:
>> > 
>> > Funny you should mention it, that's how I went down this rabbit hole
>> > in the first place. I was thinking that it would be an obviously good
>> > thing to do if we could evaluate a doIt or named script file immediately
>> > on image startup, as opposed to waiting until all of the Etoys script
>> > processing comes to life somewhere later in the startUp process.
>> 
>> Exactly. Note that VW has several commandline switches we might want to learn from
>> 
>> -filein {some file names}
>> -doit {some strings}
>> -evaluate {a single string & write result to stdout & quit
>> -cli {start a commandline loop}
> 
> What I most like about Dave's change is the improved separation of concerns:  it allows the OS to invoke an image with the proper startup script and/or arguments WITHOUT relying on Preferences readDocumentAtStartup being set correctly.  I can see -filein being useful for a production patch use-case, but the rest of those go back to mixing the Smalltalk environment in with the operating-system environment.  For safe and scalable headless interaction, you would just use a server.  I never knew if there was an actual use-case for -evaluate and -cli other than novelty.  Is there?

Both are useful for testing. —evaluate is useful in eg a (unix software build style) configure context.  —cli is useful for people who want to explore, learn, demo, etc.  

But since they don’t really cost much why are you bothering to try and veto them?

> 
>  - Chris
> 
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