Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!atexnet!cvbnet!feds19!jshekhel From: jshekhel@feds19.prime.com (Jerry Shekhel ) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Minix info request Message-ID: <527@cvbnetPrime.COM> Date: 12 Jun 90 15:58:09 GMT References: <2044@dali> <1990Jun9.130205.9282@isa.uucp> Sender: postnews@cvbnetPrime.COM Reply-To: jshekhel@feds19.UUCP (Jerry Shekhel ) Organization: Prime Computervision, Bedford MA Lines: 39 In article <1990Jun9.130205.9282@isa.uucp> (Darius S. Naqvi) writes: > >As well, there are numerous sites that archive Minix stuff and make >their archives available either by anonymous ftp or mail-servers. >You're not stuck with the "old" version of Minix-ST unless you want to >be. Also, another nice thing available from the net for the ST version >of Minix (but not the PC version due to brain-dead segmented memory) >is a C compiler with source. (The ACK compiler which comes with >Minix-ST is the only part of Minix that doesn't include source). This >C compiler (the one with source, that was posted to the net) >apparently makes executables that are almost twice as fast as those >produced by ACK. If you use this compiler and Minix-ST v1.5.10, you >should have a nice, solid, fast system. ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ Nice? Yep. Ain't nothing like the GNU stuff, like GNU Emacs, gcc, etc. Solid? Nope, because processes can step on each other. One bad process can blow away the system. Also, Minix-ST does not support virtual memory, so space is limited to physical memory. The 68K, not Minix, is to blame here. Fast? Pretty reasonable for UNIX on an 8MHz machine. The biggest problem with Minix-ST is that because the 68000 does not support dynamic relocation, fork() is a hack, and a very expensive operation. This isn't too much of a problem, except if you're running something which forks a lot, like a shell script. I've had both Minix-PC and Minix-ST, and extracting files from shell archives was much slower on the ST than on the PC. One other thing: I'd wait for the official release of the new version. Upgrading via diffs and patches is A MAJOR PAIN; it can take weeks to set up a stable upgraded system. >-- >Darius S. Naqvi uucp: darius%isagate@uunet.uu.net -- Jerry