On Sat, 1 Apr 2000, Nic Ferrier wrote:
> But that's more than the kernel - it's the whole operating system.
>
> The only time this preference comes into play with a kernel is if
> you're a hacker or an admin installing a lot of machines. Other wise
> for most people the kernel is just there (and mostly they wouldn't
> know what one was if it it mooned them).
I beg to differ -- that's the problem with monolithic kernels, that you
can't change anything, and therefore don't pay attention. Currently
I'm using Linux, but I already have dreams about the possibilities of
Hurd -- writing my own file-system interfaces to .tar.gz, writing a
file-system with meta-data, etc. These things are *supposed* to be easy
to the simple programmer, no more difficult then customizing the
environment with shell scripts. Sure, not everyone will write
file-systems, but most people don't write their own .bashrc, either. They
copy one off a friend, change a line here, add a line there, and that's
it.
Is there any reason the OS interface should be any different? You add a
translator for .mp3 which runs your favourite MP3 player, you modify the
translator for .py to run /usr/local/bin/python instead of
/usr/bin/python, and suddenly, you have an environment that's much more
pleasing.
(Note that I haven't even started to talk about efficiency)
--
Moshe Zadka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html
http://www.linux.org.il -- we put the penguin in .com
