Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!jesup From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Porting OSes (was DEC RISC Architecture) Message-ID: <15741@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 8 Nov 90 21:49:31 GMT References: <4462@trantor.harris-atd.com> <107038@convex.convex.com> <15007@hydra.gatech.EDU> <10734@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <3607@stl.stc.co.uk> <9110@fy.sei.cmu.edu> Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 22 In article peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >(And my own experience with Tripos, as its incarnation in the Commodore > Amiga, is less than thrilling...) We're trying our best to hide it's origins... ;-) Actually, some of the ideas in it are quite useful (processes for handlers/filesystems, and a few other things), though there were more than a few glaring holes and basic design flaws (it showed it's academic heritage, I'm afraid). It's biggest non-implementation flaws involved basic resource locking issues, and some important missing primitives. Implementation problems included a poor compiler, funny environment, lack of understanding of the multitasking Exec kernal and it's messaging system, and important functions available only from BCPL, not from anywhere else. 2.0 is much improved, expanded, and fixes or fills in most of the flaws (particularily in the original implementation), and it's in C now instead of BCPL, which eases maintenance. -- Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com BIX: rjesup Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"