On Wed, 2005-10-12 at 14:25 +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > This is about GNU software, that is software which is part of the > GNU project. > > And the Hurd is a GNU project. So worrying about portability for > non-GNU systems is simply not a priority.
I don't want to disturb the small children in the sandbox. They seem to enjoy throwing the sand so much! However, I would like to challenge an assumption about the need for compatibility. I am not sure how far I would want to push this, and I am not entirely sure that I fully believe it myself, but it seems worth looking at. Q: Why are people so concerned about compatibility? A: Because rewriting lots of stuff is expensive and slow, and requires specialized expertise. But for many of the applications that we are interested in, we do not *need* to rewrite the applications. What we need to do is *re-factor* the applications. So perhaps the following questions are worth considering: Q: What would it take to re-factor a large body of existing source code into a more secure architecture? A: A mid-sized body of programmers who have refactoring skills and know how to read code. This is actually something that a talented undergraduate can do. It is exactly the kind of group that open source projects are most effectively able to leverage. Q: How hard is it? A: Depends heavily on the application. In many cases we could do it at the framework level and leave the application almost entirely alone. In others we can restrict the initial refactoring to a limited number of easily described programs. Q: Could we push the changes upstream? A: Yes, if we can get a suitable component communication framework built for linux to provide source compatibility. The refactoring would provide maintenance, security, and robustness benefits under Linux/UNIX as well as Hurd. Q: Does it all need to be done at once? A: No. We can do it on a prioritized basis, deciding priority on a combination of risk, cost, and demand. Perhaps we should not reject the possibility of migrating the applications if we really believe we can do something compelling. But I agree, it is a big engineering challenge to contemplate. Still, that's how Coyotos and EROS planned to do it. shap _______________________________________________ L4-hurd mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/l4-hurd
