Re: OOP Language for OS Development

[heilig@iname.com (Brian_Heilig)]

ikbocs@yahoo.com (KingIshu) wrote in message news:<95db0572.0404142153.431fd058@posting.google.com>...
> Hi All,
> I am developing an object oriented OS code-named "ikbocs".
> 1) What are the pros and cons of the following languages interms of  
> Effectiveness on System Programming, Object Orientedness etc ?
> (Simula, Smalltalk, Modula-3, Eiffel, Sather, C++)
> I suppose Java is not suitable for Sys. Programming.
> 
> 2) Which OOP language would be better for OS development?
> 
> TIA
> KingIshu

Eiffel Pros:
Design by Contract - a process and a language, Design by Contract
defines things like software correctness, software errors, and
exceptions like no other method. Integration into the language
dramatically helps with documentation and debugging. Many other
reasons why DbC alone puts Eiffel near the top of the list. No problem
with buffer overruns in Eiffel (the number one security risk in
operating systems), thanks to DbC.
Tight language design - all language features can be traced back to
about 10 basic principles. Eiffel has been systematically designed as
a language making it concise, easy to learn and easy to use.
Strict type system - operating systems require secure and correct
code. With Eiffel you'll catch more bugs at compile time. This strict
system makes it more difficult to design your code, but the benefit
greatly outweighs the increased effort.

Eiffel Cons (related to OSes):
There is no turnkey Eiffel compiler for you to use for operating
systems. All the current compilers are system-oriented, that is, they
generate systems, which for example have command-line arguments and
garbage collectors. Unless I'm mistaken this is probably the show
stopper.
I'm pretty sure it is impossible to write an entire OS completely in
Eiffel. Number one reason, Eiffel has no method for declaring
interrupt handlers. The good news is that Eiffel integrates with other
languages easily (C for example which has an interrupt keyword).
If efficiency is your number one priority Eiffel may not be for you.
SmartEiffel and ISE Eiffel generate very efficient code, but I don't
think it meets the demands of a CPU scheduler, for example.

Brian