Re: Ada Operating System

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Alfred Hilscher" <Alfred.Hilscher@icn.siemens.de> wrote in message
news:3C90C94D.E8BB96F2@icn.siemens.de...
> Marin David Condic wrote:
> >
> > Rewriting the Linux kernel in Ada doesn't give anybody anything they
don't
> > already have. Why would they glom onto an Ada OS that was identical to a
C
> > OS if the C OS is more widespread, more mature, more supported, more
> > developed-for, more understood, etc. etc. etc. etc.?
>
> So choose OS/2 instead. It's not "widespread" ;-)
>
Well...., yeah, but its still going off and doing something that's already
been done before & I just don't see that creating a big incentive to want to
use *your* product versus using *IBM's* product. It might not be bad to look
at OS/2 and try to model what it does (or some of what it does) - but you
still need to break new ground in some way or its just the same old thing in
a different wrapper.


> > Ada. It also has to offer the computing world *something* it doesn't
> > otherwise get by using someone else's product or there will be near-zero
> > reasons to use it.
>
> Support. And a perspective to be continued.

O.K. If, for example, you were a die-hard OS/2 fan, you might conceivably
want an OS/2 clone only with available support. But a) there aren't that
many OS/2 fans relative to other operating systems, b) OS/2 *users* (as
opposed to fans) who were desparate for support would likely switch to some
other OS for which they could already get it c) duplicating something that
has already failed to capture a huge chunk of the market seems like throwing
good money after bad. If you're going to clone something - clone a *winner*.
:-)

My position would be that if an Ada OS is going to be built, it ought to
break some fundamental new ground and somehow or other be "different" from
the crowd or there wouldn't be a significant enough reason for people to go
after it.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/