Xref: utzoo comp.os.minix:6440 comp.sys.amiga:37119 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!newstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Minix for the Amiga...vaporware Summary: It would be _nice_ it isn't _necessary_ Message-ID: <116494@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 19 Jul 89 20:28:44 GMT References: <1610@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <12212@s.ms.uky.edu> <175@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu.edu> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 40 In article <12212@s.ms.uky.edu>, david@ms.uky.edu (Dan Chaney) writes: > I personally don't see any need for Minix on an amiga In article <175@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu.edu> (Darrell Schiebel) flames back: >Obviously You See No Worth in Education. ... Apart from the argument that the first statement doesn't imply the conclusion in the second statement, may I clarify this a bit? One of the particularly nice things about the Amiga is that, for the most part, it can be replaced in pieces from the ground up. This is primarily due to the original developers who were scrupulously careful to call all libraries through their entry points rather than back doors in the ROM. This means that persons desiring to learn about operating system fundamentals may do so without having to first write a complete operating system. Rather, they can concentrate on different areas and measure their improvements against an existing standard. For example, suppose you wanted to learn about efficient ways of performing memory allocation and deallocation. You could, on the Amiga, write your own memory allocater and "plug this in" to the systems memory allocation and deallocation routines. Then run a few programs and gather statistics and check to see how yours does compared to someone elses. Say you wanted to learn about filesystems. The Amiga presents and excellent opportunity, with the 1.3 release you need only provide a file system handler that understands the basic AmigaDOS packets, and voila a laboratory for studying layouts, clustering, buddy systems etc. The same it true for semaphores, scheduling, device drivers, etc. So the benefits of MINIX are that you get the source to a simple multitasking operating system that you can look at and replace pieces in if you chose that method for learning. The exact same thing can be said for AmigaDOS with the exception that you don't have the source to the core operating system, only those areas you have changed in it. Contrast that to MINIX on MS-DOS systems or to a lesser extent the Atari ST. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"