Re: Ada-inspired OS/Language

[Marin David Condic <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org>]

I can see Richard's point about "AdaOS" possibly having connotations that might
be off-putting to some people. However, far more important than the name is
that there be some usable, working piece of it in existence. Concentrate on
getting something that can boot up on an average PC and do *something*
semi-useful and you will have accomplished a lot. Even if all it will do is
fire up a command line and load some simple programs, you will have
accomplished a lot and provided something on which to build. Getting too
ambitious too soon is just going to kill it. Stick to some subset of stuff that
will enable the hobbyist to use easily available tools (A PC and the Gnat
compiler are a good start...) to a) develop pieces of the OS and b) develop
apps for the OS and you will thus attract the developers to get the effort
moved along. Changing the name later is no problem. Rename it "NickOS" if it
seems to sell better that way - but if there isn't anything to sell, the name
won't matter much.

I'd be impressed if you had assembled a development kit, instructions and some
minimal code that would serve as the starting point for an OS. Something to
compile a bootstrap program and get it  on a floppy that when power-cycling the
PC would start up & load some other program. You need at least that much to
start any serious OS development and getting that far would constitute "A Good
Start". Getting the tools together and a bootstrap going isn't going to impact
the overall design of the OS, so you don't have to have that thoroughly
designed in order to get started.

MDC
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Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

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        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
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Nick Roberts wrote:

>
> I rather agree with you. AdaOS was originally named 'Alguinntar', which was
> perhaps not the most inspiring name! Shortly after the project was formed
> (in 1999), the members (then about 15) had a vote on the name, and the
> overwhelming majority voted for 'AdaOS'.
>
> I