From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,76da32d8c4934801 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Re: Operating System in Ada (was Ada --> C Translation) Date: 1998/10/13 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 400799781 References: <6vobnk$vt9$1@jupiter.cs.uml.edu> <6vp23h$hc3$1@jupiter.cs.uml.edu> <1998Oct12.072036.1@eisner> <36222b68.725864@SantaClara01.news.InterNex.Net> <6vvlkq$k68$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: 908321815 25912 bpr 206.184.139.136 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-10-13T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: On Tue, 13 Oct 1998 dennison@telepath.com wrote: > In article , > Brian Rogoff wrote: > > > silly to do so since Unix users expect C APIs. OTOH, a complete new OS > > functionally similar to Unix/NT/VMS/AS4000/... in Ada would be an > > interesting research project. It can obviously be done, since Ada-95 > > provides all of the capabilities of C, and much more. So, like Dale, I > > As a (part-time) C.S. graduate student I suppose I'm in a position to take on > such a project, but I have to say I don't see what the value of it would be. > It might be somewhat interesting to folks here that it had been done. But why > would anyone else care in the slightest? It would depend of course on what you implemented. I didn't say that if you just implemented some vanilla OS that the world would suddenly accept Ada as an obviously superior (to me at least ;-) system implementation language. > I picture the conversation going something like this: > Me : Hey, I just implemented my own Operating System! > Other person : Yeah? What's it do? > Me : Well....nothing really. But I wrote it in Ada!! Well, here is where you have to differentiate what you are planning to write from what already exists. How about writing a research OS where the answer to that question is something, rather than "nothing really", for some value of something. No one cares if you implement something that already exists in Ada. Now the interesting question becomes what that "something" is supposed to be. Let me suggest Ted that you add EROS to the list of OSes you're looking at (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~eros/) as well as its ancestor KeyKOS (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/) and some others like AS400 and the defunct GNU Hurd. > For anyone really interested in toying with this, I have two references that > may be handy. "Operating System Design, The XINU Approach" by Douglas Comer > and Timothy Fossum implements and explains (and provides) the code for a > small Unix-like OS that will run on a PC clone. "The Oberon System" by (I > believe) Martin Reiser and Niklaus Wirth goes over the design and code for a > small Object-Oriented OS (and compiler!). If you want to do a Unix-like OS, there is no point in exactly duplicating Unix. Rather, think of some features of Unix OSes which would be better implemented in Ada 95, like STREAMS, and take it from there. -- Brian