OK, then how about -printSysAttributes and include in the help that there's lots of useful info, and have the printing code include helpful text such as<div><br></div><div>interpreter proxy version major: 1 minor: 12</div>
<div><br></div><div>etc?<br><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Igor Stasenko <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:siguctua@gmail.com">siguctua@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On 19 July 2011 09:55, Stefan Marr <<a href="mailto:squeak@stefan-marr.de">squeak@stefan-marr.de</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Hi:<br>
><br>
> On 19/07/11 02:59, Eliot Miranda wrote:<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> How about a command-line argument that prints/answers a system attribute?<br>
>> The system attributes are just strings, so they can be printed without<br>
>> loading an image etc. It won't look as nice as myvm -printProxyversion,<br>
>> it'll look like myvm -sysattr 1010 -sysattr 1011, but it'll be general.<br>
><br>
> Since I am currently again frustrated with 'someone else system', please<br>
> keep in mind that 'Sunday programmers' like me will understand<br>
> -printProxyversion without needing to search for it on the internet, but<br>
> sysattr 1011 is not directly useful, except if the command-line would also<br>
> provide a mechanism to translate that code to something understandable.<br>
><br>
<br>
</div></div>Same for me. I don't see why it needs to be obscure, if we can use<br>
symbolic names instead of numbers.<br>
After all, we making these interfaces for humans, not for machine.<br>
<br>
We have different positions on that with Eliot:<br>
Eliot adding new numbers by extending existing interface (to access<br>
the system attributes).<br>
While i think that it would be better to have primitives with<br>
corresponding names, which explaining what attribute value it<br>
returns and what it serves for.<br>
<br>
IMO, saving developer's time is much better than saving few bytes in<br>
VM binary (because of using numbers instead of name).<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Best regards,<br>
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>best,<div>Eliot</div><br>
</div></div>