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From: peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.micro.68k
Subject: Re: Holy Holistic, Batman!  (OS-9 and the art of being holistic)
Message-ID: <274@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 12:37:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: graffiti.274
Posted: Wed Oct  2 12:37:41 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 02:44:51 EDT
References: <576@sftig.UUCP> <1001@bnl44.UUCP> <11467@rochester.UUCP>
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
Lines: 36

> In article <236@graffiti.UUCP> peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
> >> All in all, a very holistic system to program for.
> >
> >*FLAME ON* You just blew your credibility buddy *FLAME OFF*
> 
> Egads!  I can't exist on the net without credibility!

Damn straight. Sorry about that (dusts off credibility & hands it back), but
I had just come here from net.med, or was that net.stoll? I know, I shouldn't
go anywhere but the bathroom after visiting net.med, let alone a real live
techy group (as opposed to a pop group?). Apology accepted?

> What I meant was that OS-9, *as an operating system* seems to have been
> designed with a unified, complete and solid idea of what they wanted and how
> in general it was to be implemented (though the actual software is quite
> modular in form, which would not be holistic).  In particular, after
> watching several revisions of OS-9 come along with new features, I've been
> startled with how easily the new features fit into the current call
> structure of the operating system.  Opening a named pipe is done through
> open(), and you read and write from it with no special features like

I like. I like.

> sockets, etc.  Forks are done by giving the name of your function and the
> parameters to a OS-9 system call, and the routine is forked into a child
> process -- no having to place both parent and child code into a big "if"

Ever done forks from assembler on a PDP-11? It's even worse. Look at the
interface some time.

> statement.  All these features seem to have been snuggled into the old OS
> call interface with no problem a'tall (although this is less obvious at the
> shell level).  I admit that I was using the term in a manner one associates
> with Japanese car commercials...

Or net.med (seeya. I gotta go the the bathroom).