Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!bu-cs!polygen!jerry
From: jerry@polygen.uucp (Jerry Shekhel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: C compiler for MINIX/286
Message-ID: <505@polygen.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jul 89 14:53:56 GMT
Organization: Polygen Corporation, Waltham, MA
Lines: 17

Hello all.  I realize that implementing a protected-mode compiler is not
as easy on the 286 as on most other processors, but it CAN be done, and
the effort might be worth it.  I also realize that this is going beyond
the strictly educational purposes of MINIX, so the compiler does not have
to be packaged with the standard distribution.

The reason I'd like to see a large-model compiler is to make possible
the implementation of something like a windowing system for MINIX.
Just as I have doubts about the utility of a windowing system without
multitasking (like the Mac Finder), I really see very little use in
(single user) multitasking without a windowing system.  Having several
windows on the screen with a shell executing in each would be the ideal
application of MINIX multitasking.  Also, a windowing system would open
up many MINIX development doors, and at least for me, it would create
INTEREST in MINIX development.  As it stands now, I find myself using
MINIX too much like MS-DOS too often, not utilizing MINIX multitasking
at all.