Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!lll-tis!ptsfa!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!nuchat!steve
From: steve@nuchat.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Mach, the new standard?
Message-ID: <300@nuchat.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Aug-87 16:26:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: nuchat.300
Posted: Fri Aug 28 16:26:34 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Aug-87 20:10:48 EDT
References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <8381@utzoo.UUCP> <797@Pescadero.ARPA> <26310@sun.uucp>
Organization: Public Access - Houston, Tx
Lines: 32
Keywords: Mach
Xref: utgpu comp.unix.wizards:3705 comp.os.misc:111
Summary: quick comment about bell's code

[This has drifted away from architecture,
comp.arch deleted from newsgroups list]

I wrote:
> > From what I've seen of bell's code it is a net liability anyway.

To which Guy replies:
In article <26310@sun.uucp>, guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
> That's a pretty broad statement; how much of that code have you seen?  Some of
> it is good, some of it is bad, some of it is in-between, and some of it is a
> mixture of these.

[I've cut out a lot of good points about the difficulty of replacing
the utilities even if you do replace the kernel, etc.]

From the code I've seen, which has been limited to 2.9 BSD and one
very important sysV utility, precicely those parts that are somewhat
hard to write are badly written.

There seems to be a "catch-22" operating here.  If something is
moderately hard to do, like memory management, file system checking,
or parser generation, to name a few, the first attempt is almost
certain to be of less-than-polished quality.  But since the job
is both important and non-trivial, that first working piece of
code is pressed into service, where it becomes entrenched.  It
is then immune to re-write attempts, and lives forever.

I had written about several examples, but decided to spare the net
and deleted the lines.  Anyone interrested is invited to send mail.

	Steve Nuchia
	{{soma,academ}!uhnix1,sun!housun}!nuchat!steve