Re: Ada OS based on Minix3

[Martin Krischik <krischik@users.sourceforge.net>]

Peter C. Chapin schrieb:
> Martin Krischik wrote:
> 
>> Now, if I wanted to create an OS I would not target real hardware at
>> all. At least not in the beginning. I would probably implement the OS
>> inside a VMware virtual machine.
> 
> What about targeting a hypervisor like Xen? If I understand correctly
> (and I may not) that would separate the OS somewhat from the real
> hardware and may help its portability in the long run.

I knew that this question would come ;-) - The answer is simple: Xen is
not available for Window and Mac OS X hosts - together they amount to
90% of all desktop OS.

While Ada programmer are not like the average user and are more likely
to use Linux shutting out Windows and Mac OS X would still shut out a
lot of potential users and beta testers.

And even on Linux it is not all that easy. I can install a VMware Player
in no time on Linux but never quite succeeded in getting Xen to work.
Even with SuSE Linux which comes with a Xen plug-in for Yast.

So in short: Xen is not all that portable and would defeat the "quit
install and try it out" objective.

Regards

Martin
-- 
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
Ada programming at: http://ada.krischik.com