> > (Well, I doubt there's a semi-usable non-fascist platform left > > by then. So much does the present state of FOSS and the course > > it is taking suck. Although, with enough manpower, it might be > > possible to write a full OS in eight years. So who's signing up?-) > > > Here's an honest question: what language do people think the next operating > system, the one that Ion users are most likely to write, will be written in? C > is the default choice, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something else...
It has been done already--in (significantly) less than eight years, an by mainly just two people only: Niklaus Wirth and Juerg Gutknecht, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zuerich [ETHZ]. It's the Oberon OS, and it's written in Oberon [the homonym programming language]. I would prefer Modula-3 ... among the nicest programming languages I know: based on Modula-2 minus its problematic features, VERY NICE, tiny, yet POWERFUL, SIMPLE, EFFICIENT and FAST, supporting interfaces, objects, generics, lightweight threads, isolation of unsafe code, garbage collection, exceptions and subtyping. The fact is [I think] that Modula-3 has been a DEC [Digital Equipment] and Olivetti project, not an ETHZ one, and that Modula-3 has outclassed the original Oberon by far. [Wirth has not been/is ?! not an easy man.] So do things go, unfortunately: a gem of a programming language-Modula-3--who has been unjustly [or maybe actively?] *forgotten* or *marginalized* with the exception of Canada, perhaps. (As another example, the winner of Ada [83] has also not been the most promising project.) And a programming language which is still unsurpassed today, under many perspectives, and *modern*. One galaxy or two aside, compared with C, in any case. [Python's Guido van Rossum claims to have been inspired by Modula-3, to let us understand.] With Ada [tasking, among other things] and Eiffel [design by contract], both contemporary to Modula-3, the job of truly innovating in the domain of programming languages has reached its zenith, likely. Anyway, there are *free* implementations of Modula-3 though. Then I know that an experimental OS has been written in Ada[83], and that the OS has been said to be slow. (I would not chose Ada.) I would stay away from C++. Cheers, /Roy -- SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS tak ada rotan, akar pun jadi SSSSS . s l a c k w a r e SSSSSS no rattans, roots will do [if you are SSSSS +------------ linux SSSSSS desperate, you must not be choosy] SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
