Re: Writing an Operating System in Ada

[Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com>]

On 15 Sty, 09:37, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
wrote:

> You can always serialize object. Call it a blob.

That's exactly what I'm doing right now - and that's why I do not see
any added value from pure-OO approach.

> The problem is what do you do with the blob beyond undoubtedly enjoyable
> moving it for one memory stick to another.

Nothing, because as long as the blob is on the stick, there is nothing
else I might want to do with it.
The blob becomes useful only when it is loaded into memory.

> Because your file system has completely nothing to do with the contents,
> there is neither any gain nor any loss.

The added value is that of name resolution. I can name my file (OK,
blob) as "my_homework_program.adb" and this intermediary naming layer
helps me with recognition of the content - otherwise I would have to
deal with sector numbers. The added value is exactly the same as that
of DNS, so that I do not have to type in the IP address of the
newsgroup service that I'm using right now.

The purpose of the file system is to bring understanding to the
digital mess and the current file systems do their job pretty well.

> > In this context, the advantage of the file system is that it does not
> > impose any assumptions about the OS itself.
>
> How so? It requires the file system to be implemented on each OS you wanted
> to attach the device to.

And the fact that my USB stick works everywhere shows that this
assumption is realistic. The assumption that the target OS is pure-OO
would not be.

> > That's why my USB stick
> > works everywhere.
>
> No. It does not under MS-DOS.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1046069/yes-usb-drivers-dos
http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm
...

> Did you try to write a movie file on a stick?
> (FAT has limitations on the file size).

Which is completely unrelated to what we discuss.
(and lots of useful movies are short)

> > I'm afraid that the omnipresent computing will bring us omnipresent
> > untypedness - or at least this is the current trend, if popularity of
> > programming languages is to be taken as any indication...
>
> Is there an increase in the number of commercial projects done in those
> languages?

Are you sure you are still living in a world where
"commercial" (whatever that means) is equivalent to "leading"?

--
Maciej Sobczak * www.msobczak.com * www.inspirel.com

Database Access Library for Ada: www.inspirel.com/soci-ada