Re: Ada 0Y plans for garbage collection?

[rleif@rleif.com (Robert C. Leif)]

If this could be done, it would be extremely valuable. A major problem
with PCs is what was an information appliance was transformed into a
computer with a full blown operating system. This is exactly what the
majority of customers do NOT need. They would be much better served by
a device that could be turned on and off by a simple switch.
 
Parenthetically, Nick has one year from the date of publication to
apply for a US Patent. If his technology works and is new, this patent
could be very valuable. He could even license it with a clause that
requires the code to be written in Ada.
Bob Leif
Robert C. Leif, Ph.D.
Email rleif@rleif.com


"Nick Roberts" <nickroberts@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message news:<bkqt28$3v03r$1@ID-25716.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> wrote in message
> news:2q30nv4fain641rin9dia3onjr7ut01our@4ax.com...
> 
> [re booting and sleeping]
> > Yep. Especially interesting it becomes with plug'n'play devices. You
> > have, say a USB or PCMCIA device attached, before your Windoze
> > hibernates. While it peacefully sleeps, you archly eject the hardware
> > and then wake it up! The effect might be amazing, though predictable
> > ...
> > Of course in a truly memory-mapped OS, the present concept of
> > hardware drives is out of place. One more reason for Ada OS?
> 
> I think the broad scheme I would like to adopt for AdaOS would be as
> follows.
> 
> Each device driver, having at least once gone through a complete hardware
> configuration procedure, would record the hardware configuration upon
> shutdown. Upon the next reboot, the device driver would reinstate this
> configuration, and would perform a quick check that the configuration still
> accords with the detectable hardware (if this check failed, the full
> configuration procedure would be activated).
> 
> With a bit of care, this technique should make it possible to fully shutdown
> and then reboot very rapidly, but it would still be safe in the case of
> intervening hardware changes (which would automatically cause
> reconfiguration).
> 
> I intend to design the user application software for AdaOS so that it
> (normally) remembers its important state in between the user logging off and
> back on again. This is primarily to encourage users to log off whenever they
> leave the workstation, but it also means that a user can log off, shutdown,
> reboot, and log on, and all (or most) of their work (open windows) will be
> reinstated as it was when the user logged off.
> 
> I don't know why operating systems (Windows, SunOS, and Linux in my direct
> experience) are so slow at booting up, but I suspect it has a lot to do with
> device drivers intialising themselves and their hardware. If this
> initialisation can be either avoided (by the above tactics) or deferred (to
> be done in the background after the boot procedure has got the system to a
> usable stage), the user will perceive a fast boot process.
> 
> If the user can shutdown and reboot quickly (within a few seconds, I
> suppose), and does not have to go through the rigmarole of closing a lot of
> programs (windows) and then restarting them, I suspect the demand for a
> 'sleep mode' would be largely obviated.
> 
> If any OS is to be really secure, it must be basically reliable. I think
> Dmitry has neatly illustrated the dangers of such fundamental complications
> as sleep modes and other forms of partial shutdown. If a machine supports a
> sleep mode, I think that's okay (especially as part of an overall power
> management regime), but a full shutdown is better.
> 
> However, I'm open to debate!