Real OS (was: strangest systems I've sent email from)

[Paul Koning]

> On Apr 25, 2016, at 5:14 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
> 
> But for the most part Common Folk did not have the resources
> I suspect for REAL programing languages, because those require
> a REAL OS to run with, and after the 8086 the Newer chips became
> too complex to use, and the 68000 was only 16 bit addressing.
> Then Windows came out and NON-DIS-CLOSER become the norm.

I'm not sure what a "real OS" is, nor why it is required to run a "real programming language" (whatever that is).

Is FORTH a real language?  You can run FORTH on pretty much anything, and porting it to a new architecture may take only a few days.  On complex machines (like 64 bit MIPS) it might take a little longer.  If you want to replace the boot ROM as well, then things get complex, because you may have to do stuff like initialize the memory controller.  But all that sort of thing is still done routinely.

Also, you can find any number of lightweight OS for lots of machines, environments where even languages like C++ are readily available.  Or you can write your own, as the team I work with has done; if you have specific and well-bounded requirements that's not a big deal.

	paul