Re: [OT] Gnat cross compiling FreeBSD to Win32 ?

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

"Darren New" <dnew@san.rr.com> wrote in message
news:3CE2D238.50F3EFD1@san.rr.com...
>
> Agreed. I'd missed that conflation the first time I read it. Yeah, Linux
> is a wash on the desktop right now because there aren't desktop apps for
> it of the same quality as what you can get for Windows, but that doesn't
> mean there wouldn't be closed-source apps if Linux was out there a lot.
>
I think the point was that even though Linux *does* have desktop apps, your
typical Windows user has some *specialized* need as well as the general
needs everyone has. Linux (in its current state) doesn't have the bazzillion
specialized apps out there - just some good general ones that make it fit
well with server applications at the moment. For example, I need a word
processor, a spreadsheet, an e-mail program *and* a cross-compilation
environment to a particular set-top box & OS. Linux can give me the word
processor, spreadsheet and the e-mail program. I can't get the
cross-compiler? No way can I use Linux.

Others would have similar needs, but not identical ones. This was where the
article was going with saying Linux has a problem in catching up with
Windows. I agree - to the point where Linux becomes of sufficient mass that
many major developers see some money to be made in porting their apps to it.


> And yes, the problem with the AdaOS is the lack of apps. The chicken-egg
> thing. But if an OS is supposed to provide general services, it would
> seem a "killer app" wouldn't need a new OS, yes? Unless no existing OS
> was suitable for developing the app, at which point the app and the OS
> become one?
>
The problem with AdaOS is *existence* not lack of apps! :-)

What I was suggesting is that AdaOS could take a lesson from that article
and be sure to (Lean close and pay attention because this *will* be on the
final exam! :-)

    a) Be Something Different!!!!!!!
and
    b) Target A Domain Where It Doesn't *NEED* A Bazillion Apps To Compete.

I've suggested that AdaOS have some ability to service realtime apps because
developers in that domain don't necessarily need to execute every app in the
world - just the one they are custom-developing. (Or that, and a handful of
other things that are running non-real-time.) However, other domains might
present similar opportunities - Servers being an example. (A server needs a
few apps running on it to get its job done, but it isn't something that
typically demands thousands of specialized apps to be useful to a large
number of people.) Or possibly target the users of computers for solving
large-scale math applications. They don't need to have Autocad or
Video-Toaster or Sim City running on the machine. (And they don't generally
need realtime - so a more Unixish/Windowsish approach to scheduling and
device driving can work)They're going to suck up nearly all the CPU
executing some custom math application they built, so they aren't going to
demand a bazillion apps. (They'll demand that the OS give them something
they don't get elsewhere - and probably that it at least "play nice with
others" in the network.)

See my point? If AdaOS targets an appropriate market that they can
realistically offer something to, it might find a following. If it finds a
following, it might grow to a sufficient user base to start attracting more
developers. Then you'll get your chickens and eggs thing solved.

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