Re: Ada Stuff and some confusion

["chris.danx" <chris.danx@ntlworld.com>]

Hi,

> I was playing off of "Unix". (Also off of an Americanism about retiring to
> write "The Great American Novel" - like Mobey Dick.) Not entirely without
> some seriousness in there. If you're looking for a name, I'd shoot for
> something a little sexier and different.

Funnyly we are looking for a name.  Hermann, my OS development partner,
suggested ARES and I went with it assuming it didn't have any nastyness
attached.  As the folk at alt.os.development pointed out it looks like ARSE.
I'm kinda embarrased; I'm Scottish and we're usually quick to spot things
like this.  Just Scottish humour i guess!

We're setting up a vote on the name.  I put 5 names in, Hermann does the
same, and we let the internet community decide.  It's not up yet, but
Hermann will put it up soon.  I wanted to call it Birdy, cos' it's my
cousins nickname and she's great fun and completely bonkers.  Sounds good
too.

> If you are interested in writing an OS in Ada, maybe you want to look at:
> http://www.adaos.org/ and drop Nick Roberts a line. An OS is a big thing
> that could take years to do - you'll probably want some help! :-) I've not
> seen much in the way of activity here in a while.
>
> >
> > I wan't to do an OS that's reliable and doesn't suffer from
C-Pointer-itus
> > which is what most of my C code suffers from.  All that pointer to char
> > stuff for strings is what get's me everytime.  Plus C isn't really
> > standardized, no matter what folk tell you!
> >
> Better you should contribute to an ongoing effort than start something
like
> this yourself. You're talking about a *LOT* of code and you'd benefit from
> the knowledge others can bring to the table.

I think our project is different, we have different goals.  I thought about
joining AdaOS early on, but I decided against it.  First I'm not that
experienced with low level stuff and most people there have more than i do.
Also I got confused with the Ada compiler and OS.  I thought they wanted to
do the compiler first and then the OS.  This is wrong as i think you pointed
out (could be wrong it was a while ago).

I've been toying with the idea of dynamic update, which is a bit like the
language TOM's OO facilities but more controlled and more secure.  I've also
been interested in application privilidges/rights.  This is where you say
this program can do, Reading/Writing of Files, TCP/IP and such like.
Anything it tries to do which it isn't registered to do, it can't and get's
the a kick in the ass.  This is to prevent some types of virus and to create
a more secure environment.  I don't know if this will work but I'm going to
try it out at least on paper and see.

One other reason i want to do it as a separate project is that I'm about to
leave uni for 6 months and can devote quality time to it.  Not just an hour
here or there.  Also the team is small, just me and Hermann, which is good.
I think we're going to seek additional help later, but i'd be concerned if
more than say 5 or 6 people got on board in the early stages.

I've also got to convince Hermann about the benefits of Ada, against C.
He's learning C as he goes, but his background is in Pascal.  I think i
persuade him that Ada is a better choice.  This is another reason why i'm
doing the Ada pages to help him into Ada.


> But they seem to be shooting for something more along the
> lines of a WinNT replacement & that's not my interest.

I don't think NT is a good system, it's certainly better than 9X but still.
I also don't rate Unix/Linux much either, but this is cos' it's old
(architecture-wise).  NT is a hybrid microkernel and has some nice features
but it's still has many faults and shouldn't be modelled by anyone.

Saying that Hermann wants to support Unix System V, contrary to what he said
before (no unix clone).  I want to do a new API and maybe Unix as a layer on
top, don't want it in API.  Since our kernel is going to be re-configurable
we'll probably be able to do all manner of API's on top and all manner of
implementations under the hood.  I don't want a huge windows-like API, keep
it small and tidy but fuctional and flexible.  It's a going to be a
microkernel and I've seen a OS's few which use micro-kernels as a base.

You said you wanted a "a solid realtime, embedded subset kernel", why don't
you consult with Hermann and me, and we'll see what comes from it.  This is
just the beginning and we haven't finalised design and any such like.  You
could make some suggestions, and if you're interested in contributing code
then I can talk to Hermann and see what he thinks.  We're doing this in our
spare time, and we understand things like work and life have to go on and
take priority.  We're not going to pressure you.  You could become a member.
You might just contribute to the project that could make windows look like
the Dinosaur of the OS world.

If you're interested mail me at chris.danx@ntlworld or cc_bnf@hotmail.com.
you'll find our site at http://ares.os-4u.com.


Regards,
Chris Campbell

p.s. you can try http://willow.os-4u.com tommorrow night(friday) it'll
probably be a lot further down the road to actually featuring anything
useful then.