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From: jdm@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (James D Mooney)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.arch,comp.os.misc
Subject: TRON (summary of criticisms)
Keywords: TRON, operating systems, networks, realtime systems
Message-ID: <395@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Date: 11 Jul 89 14:47:25 GMT
Sender: news@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu
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Thanks for the continuing comments on the TRON project.  The following
is an attempt to organize and summarize the main ideas that seem to
have been expressed so far.

A few commenters spoke in favor of TRON, and a few more emphasized the
importance of paying attention.  The majority of comments, though, were
highly critical, or suggested reasons why others might object to TRON.
The critical comments fall more or less into three groups:

I. GENERAL CRITICISMS:

	1. Not enough information is easily available.

	2. It's Japanese, not American.  This seems to have
	   several subthemes:

		a) TRON doesn't want non-Japanese participation.
		b) The West (U.S.?) does not want to share its technology
	           with potential competitors.
		c) Big projects in Japan have lost credibility
		   (citing 5th Generation, etc.)
		d) TRON is for Japanese products; Western countries
	           have their own standards.

	3. It's "design by committee," therefore likely to fail.

	4. It isn't practical, and can't be implemented efficiently.

II. TRON AS A STANDARD:

	1. It's only a set of standards.  There are too many standards.
	   Standards are uninteresting and not useful.

	2. TRON ignores existing standards.

	3. TRON includes little real innovation.

	4. No one will be required to use TRON.

III. ELEMENTS OF TRON:

	1. The global, all-encompassing TRON network is a threat to
	   privacy (Big Brother is watching).

	2. The TRON CPU is uninteresting, inefficient, CISC, and hard to
	   program (did I also hear the term "ugly"?).

	3. The TRON operating systems are glorified UNIX (or MSX).

	4. The TRON operating systems are not compatible with
	   UNIX (or MS-DOS).

I think this summarizes the main ideas expressed.  I apologize if I have
misrepresented anything or left anything out.  I have my own responses to
some of these points; they will be saved for a later posting.  These
criticisms are also discussed in my commentary which should appear in
the September Microprocessors and Microsystems.
Jim Mooney				Dept. of Stat. & Computer Science
(304) 293-3607				West Virginia University
					Morgantown, WV 26506
INTERNET: jdm@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu