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Xref: sserve comp.os.minix:22409 comp.os.386bsd.misc:549 comp.os.386bsd.questions:3433 comp.os.linux:45879 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!nigel.msen.com!math.fu-berlin.de!uni-paderborn.de!urmel.informatik.rwth-aachen.de!messua!dak From: dak@messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (David Kastrup) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions Subject: Re: Choosing a Unix like OS for a pc Date: 1 Jul 1993 02:19:59 GMT Organization: Rechnerbetrieb Informatik - RWTH Aachen Lines: 34 Distribution: world Message-ID: <20thkf$9ab@urmel.informatik.rwth-aachen.de> References: <C8wC29.9qq@world.std.com> <201f9p$kkv@klaava.Helsinki.FI> <203s5k$j9u@urmel.informatik.rwth-aachen.de> <C9E4J4.Fsw.1@cs.cmu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cmaeda+@cs.cmu.edu (Christopher Maeda) writes: >In article <203s5k$j9u@urmel.informatik.rwth-aachen.de> dak@messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (David Kastrup) writes: >> >>And to give another one credit: I believe that the original Oberon system >>(windowing OS, OO-variant of Modula-2-compiler...) was able to recompile >>itself in the matter of a few seconds. (CPU NS32032 or similar). >>Of course this is a minimalistic working environment, nedding only a few >>100k in toto. (If I remember right, about 250k, including compiler, >>editor and loader). BTW, one of the persons to credit is Niklaus Wirth, >>and I've forgotten the name of the other one. >What a breakthrough! If you want your kernel to compile twice as >fast, use a compiler that's twice as dumb or leave out half the >functionality. You guys should write a paper for usenix. Give it a break. The system makes high language development possible, has multi-tasking, and an object-oriented compiler. It is fast, and lean. They have done development of several complicated applications ont it. It has also a windowing Operating System. All in a few 100k. I think that this is at least respectable in a time where some people need more space for their bootstrap loader. The compiler has at least the functionality of the usual pcc Unic C-compiler, is faster, and of course optimizing. The whole system, of course, is written in Oberon itself. Of course it is not Posix. But it is a remarkably useable lean system and should at least serve as sort of reminder that software development should not stop at the point where you say "With hyperfast processors and lots of memory, this program will work not as painfully slow as it does now." -- David Kastrup dak@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de Tel: +49-241-72419 Fax: +49-241-79502 Goethestr. 20, W-5100 Aachen, Germany