jap@convex.cl.msu.edu (Joe Porkka) (01/10/91)
ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes: >I'd like to butt in and suggest that this discussion about merits >of PC operating systems is on completely the wrong track. >[Note from Poster's Conscience: the rest of this message is >pretty long, and more than a little rambling, so if you don't feel >as strongly about the importance of single-user systems as I do, >you may as well skip the rest of it.] >As soon as you accept this, it becomes obvious that MS-DOS was >badly designed from day 1. Microsoft *should* have done a No kidding!! >Consider what an operating system is supposed to do. Different >people have lots of different ideas on this, but among the most >important design principles that I can think of are: > 1) Shield the application program from hardware dependencies, > and variations in system configurations. > 2) Provide a standard interface to services that allow > transfer of information between applications. > 3) Implement other useful services that application programmers > find themselves reinventing. >Principle 1 leads to such ideas as "device drivers" to hide the >differences between floppy disks, SCSI hard disks, disks on Boy, you would LOVE the Amiga Operating System Device drivers with a consistent standardized interface. Each one supports things like Read, Write, Open, Close, plus any device specific commands. For example, the serial.device has a command to set parameters, like baud. >network servers etc (broadly speaking). Principle 2 leads to the >conclusion that, if two or more applications are going to be able to >access common data on those same disks, then you must have a common format >for storing that data, and hence (to guarantee consistency) the it has a good filesystem interface. Allows third parties to make new filesystems This is being done in the public domain (messyfilesystem to read MSDOS disks) and commercially. It has also from the start supported a standard file format, which is extendable CBM keeps a registry of file formats. CBM publishes this info so others can (and usually do) use the same format as similar programs. It also has good IPC. In fact, all device calls, DOS calls, and inputevent are handled by IPC, rather than procedure calls. This means that you inherently can do all IO async. Then theres AREXX for talking to other programs with. >Note the important difference between Principles 2 and 3: a certain >feature may be needed in a lot of programs, so it would be handy >if it were a standard part of the OS, but as soon as that feature Shared libraries. Shared Fonts. Shared drivers.device. Shared execuatbles (ie, if you run 'dir' twice, it needs only one copy of the code in memory) I could go on and on but I wont.
jcb@frisbee.Eng.Sun.COM (Jim Becker) (01/10/91)
jap@convex.cl.msu.edu (Joe Porkka) writes: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes: >I'd like to butt in and suggest that this discussion about merits >of PC operating systems is on completely the wrong track. Boy, you would LOVE the Amiga Operating System Device drivers with a consistent standardized interface. Each one supports things like Read, Write, Open, Close, plus any device specific commands. For example, the serial.device has a command to set parameters, like baud..... Yes, the Amiga has plenty when it comes to great hardware and software. It just doesn't have a company that gives it the longterm efforts needed for success. It's been a great machine, for the past five years. Before you flame me too bad, I tried to create and make a living off of multi-media on the Amiga between 1985 and 1987. The computer itself was great for the time, and perhaps still is great for the 90's. But the antics of the parent company, Commodore, pretty much did it's best to piss off all the Fanatics and Developers as time passed. There's still plenty of interest in the machine, but it's mostly just another wave rather than anyone originally programming for the machine. On a postive note, I'm glad to see that CBM has recognized the MM potential for the Amy, and wish them the best of luck for the CDTV. Now if they just did it four years ago we would still be talking.. -Jim Becker (ex-pres Terrapin Software [now extinct]) -- -- Jim Becker / jcb%frisbee@sun.com / Sun Microsystems