The Mknew Project is an investigation of how to
build simple Unix shell scripts to manage common
development and administrative tasks. The emphasis
is on using languages and tools that already exist
and are in common use. A related emphasis is on
exploring the functional programming nature of the
bash shell. This is accomplished by using the bash
function capability, and using the bash "$("
")"syntax to delay function execution in bash
scripts. This allows building scripts that have a
LISP-like function syntax that permits shell
scripts to be written as a series of function
calls with minimal syntax. The goal is to provide
a way to specify make procedures of heterogeneous
components in a bash script. These can include
diverse source code languages, documentation text,
test procedures, and data. In addition to the
mknew function library (mklib), these "make"
procedures rely only on capabilities provided by
the bash shell, and common Unix command line
utilities.
