Can a framework be developed that would allow for extensive use of bash as a general purpose information management system? YES!
The program QBASIC had a framework that allowed you to access individual subroutines. The big ticket was the editor essentially the first Integrated Development Environment. Visual Basic and it's successors all seem to all be based upon the idea of an IDE. This is carried over even as far as the Arduino Sketch
#Why not build a framework around BASH? The strengths of bash are: ** It is ubiquitous as in everywhere ** When you enter bash you are in bash. This leads to the "one liner disease", which we cure.
#The cure The first step is shell qualifiers, all these are subject to change. Keep in mind the "GUI" could and should be the method of choice, sketch, whiptail, emacs... however for our purposes we have settled on zenity.
#Examples in reverse chronological order include:
- [ctrantor.sh] an REsT/Sphinx based web controller-note uses inclues ()
- [chello.sh] a way of creating grant oriented websites ()
- vonf.sh
On the subject of Menues
On the subject of GUIs
If you don't have a GUI in this day and age you are lost... So, extend this idea with Graphic Secure Dispatch, soon to be renamed tropes a computer language that needs to be written, but for now known as the Bash Zenity integration, and available at:
For More Information
Note that loading everything into a variable also works. Pay attention to the wisdom of [Robert Muth] (http://robert.muth.org/) this will be incorporated into the new template examples...
VisualBash
Visual Bash (also avaiilable at VisualBash.org), is a modest and seriously tongue-in-cheek bash programmiung framework.