[fa.info-cpm] Better things than Unix

C70:info-cpm (07/31/82)

>From decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm@Ucb-C70 Sat Jul 31 03:28:22 1982
    decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!jab at Ucb-C70, 
    decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!bsteve at Ucb-C70
Cc: uok!duke!decvax!ucbvax!info-cpm at BRL, 
    uok!duke!decvax!ucbvax!info-micro at BRL
Reply-To: decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm at Ucb-C70
Via:  Ucb-C70; 31 Jul 82 5:31-EDT
Via:  Brl; 31 Jul 82 5:39-EDT
Via:  Brl-Bmd; 31 Jul 82 5:47-EDT

I got a request to describe the systems that I thought were much better than
Unix and hope will be available by the time the hardware to run them reaches
affordable prices. The following is my (belated) reply. I thought it of
enough interest to be posted to the lists. My apologies to those who
get it twice.

Eden, smalltalk, etc. are representatives of the what I hope will be the
next generation of operating systems. These systems are generically referred
to as "object" based systems. Their primary characteristic is that they
don't have file systems; everything in an object driven system is always in
memory, some memory is just slower than other memory.

Some of the features these systems can display:

	1) user supplied object topologies
	2) dynamic linking to objects
	3) I/O redirection by name substitution
	4) Automated desktop style command processors

These things imply some slick capabilities. User supplied topologies
means that I can organize my `files' any way I please, using any naming
convention I want. Dynamic linking to objects means that if a bug gets
fixed in a library, I won't have to relink programs that use the
library; they'll pick the new one up when I run them. Finally, I/O
redirection by name means that you can do things like

	"run this program; when it asks for object klaatu, give it
	object barado instead"

Similar magic should apply to subroutine linkage, etc.

Smalltalk is a language/system (similar to BASIC in the binding of the
operating system and the language) developed by Xerox, to be release to the
public "soon". The Rossetta Corporation has an implementation of Smalltalk
'76 on a z80. See the August '81 issue of Byte for information.

Eden is a system being worked on by a group of people at the University of
Washington. It is designed to run on 1 to 4 iAPX-432's (gulp) as part of a
local ethernet system. One of the aims of the Eden project is to build a
good environment for doing CS research.  See the Proceedings of the Eigth
Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (December '81 OSR) for
information.

The etc include iMAX-432, being developed by Intel for the iAPX-432. This is
the only object driven system currently available to the public. For
information, check the Eigth SOSP mentioned above.

In addition, I have been playing with the idea of putting some form of
object driven system on my current (z80) hardware. It's not clear that such
a thing is possible. The lack of a hard disk is particularly noticeable.

	mike