18 May
2016
18 May
'16
3:28 p.m.
>>> Apple Lisa operating system . . .
>>> implemented in Pascal
>>> . . . . which was a pretty big mainstream success for proving
>>> Pascal as suitable for developing systems software.
>> "Apple hired brilliant people for the project. BUT, they had so little
>> real-world experience that they didn't even realize what a mistake it
>> would be to write an OS in a high level language.
> What a bizarre statement, given that there was plenty of precedent for
> doing so very successfully.
> particular compilers used. But clearly there had been successful (large
> scale) operating systems written in high level languages well before
> the Mac.
On Wed, 18 May 2016, Toby Thain wrote:
There were very many; the Brinch Hansen book,
"Classic Operating Systems"
contains many examples. Some languages used before 1974 were even better
suited than C to this purpose.
Do people think computers didn't exist before 1974?!
No, those were the most fun!
However, the previous exchange was about MICROCOMPUTER operating systems,
specifically use of Pascal for writing the Lisa.
In 1974, MOST microcomputer systems programmers were waiting on hardware
delivery.
Even by the time of the Lisa, microprocessors were pretty marginal for
supporting an operating system written in a high level language.
I'm trying to imagine a microcomputer OS written in PL/1! That might be
fun!
Night before last, Windoze did an unauthorized conversion of one of my
machines from Win7 32 bit Home Premium to Win10 32 bit Home Premium.
Most of my other PCs are XP, and the more that I used Win7, the less that
I disliked it.
I wanted to try the Win10 for a few weeks to see if I could learn
to stand it.
But, after a day of struggling with it, trying to get the configuration
back into a form that could do the work that that machine has to do, I
rolled it back to Win7.
Bill Gates must be made into a millionaire!
($70 - $80 billion reduction (nobody seems to get it without explanation))