Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!tornado.Berkeley.EDU!dankg From: dankg@tornado.Berkeley.EDU (Dan KoGai) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: Macintosh OS (was: 68000 and Workstations.) Summary: Are INITs|CDEVs parts of OS? Keywords: Mac, OS, INIT, CDEV Message-ID: <1990Jun6.132037.8645@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 6 Jun 90 13:20:37 GMT References: <30273@ut-emx.UUCP> <76700207@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <1990May24.114553.10301@phri.nyu.edu> <37@voa3.UUCP> <402@newave.UUCP> <26200.265dd7be@vaxb.acs.unt.edu> <6392@scolex.sco.COM> <36860@think.Think.COM> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >This is a definition of an operating system that is so watered down as to >be meaningless. To me, an operating system is a resource manager: it >allocates resources such as memory, CPU time, disk space, devices, and so >on to various user agents (i.e. programs). An adequate operating system >should manage at least the major resources: disk space, memory, CPU time, >and I/O devices. The Macintosh system software does not, at this point in >time, manage CPU time in anything like an adequate manner. It has a weird >memory manager, an excellent I/O manager, and a competant if hairy disk >space manager. But without a scheduler it's just another DOS. I agree with your opinion in general: But as a resource manager, Mac OS is one of the best OS in the world: You can let OS draw screens instead of writing your own or link to libraries like DOS or UNIX. It even allows you to replace some of those System Resources via INITs and CDEVs, hardly possible for DOS or UNIX. Also not Mac's "Big Chunky OS" reduces application sizes for the same reasons--Applications run on less codes of its own. I was surprised small "hello world" C program made 32kbyte application on Sun. With that size you can write far more complex programs on Mac--Boomerang, one of my favorite CDEVs is almost as complex as UNIX shells yet it's only 50+k, including highly graphical help resources. So I have a question--Where do we draw the line between OS and others? For many shell is a part of OS. For some it is only Kernel. Do we include INITs and CDEVs and the like as OS? One of CDEVs allows you to work on vertual memory. Is it OS? A/UX uses Toolbox routines. Is Toolbox OS? In your sense Toolbox is not OS but A/UX is but in hieralchy Toolbox is a layer behind. ---------------- ____ __ __ + Dan The "Mac Bigot" Man ||__||__| + E-mail: dankg@ocf.berkeley.edu ____| ______ + Voice: +1 415-549-6111 | |__|__| + USnail: 1730 Laloma Berkeley, CA 94709 U.S.A |___ |__|__| + |____|____ + "What's the biggest U.S. export to Japan?" \_| | + "Bullshit. It makes the best fertilizer for their rice"