Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ccvaxa!dfields
From: dfields@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Unix vs. OS/2 (was RE: Pournelle on
Message-ID: <57900007@ccvaxa>
Date: 11 Jan 88 23:30:00 GMT
References: <11156@brl-adm.ARPA>
Lines: 37
Nf-ID: #R:brl-adm.ARPA:11156:ccvaxa:57900007:000:1985
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!dfields    Jan 11 17:30:00 1988


/* Written  8:34 pm  Jan  7, 1988 by chris@mimsy.UUCP in ccvaxa:comp.unix.wizards */
>In article <11156@brl-adm.ARPA> GUTHERY%ASC%sdr.slb.com@RELAY.CS.NET
>(guthery%asc@sdr.slb.com) writes:
>>	- file write-though
>>	- system trace
>
>As for these, I am not sure what is meant.  SunOS 4.0 has SysV
>semaphores and mapped files.  If you have 4BSD-based *source* (such
>as SunOS 3.x---not having seen 4.0 source I am not sure it is still
>there, though I imagine so), there is a system call trace facility,
>but it is very primitive.  On the other hand, source level debuggers
>can trace system calls from user programs.  (Having kernel source
>is usually required because most vendors compile without -DSYSCALLTRACE.)
>-- 
>In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
>Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris

    It's been a year and a half since I've worked with it but I believe
"file write-through" is marketing-ese for no file system cache.  The system
call trace was going to be used to debug crashes.  There's a utility which
will print the last XXX trace points in the kernel.  It wasn't very pretty
the last time I saw it but....

    The things that bothered me about OS/2 were that kernel written in
assembler because some people were worried about efficiency (some of the
code was very ineffcient though) and that the utilites and file system
were the same brain damaged ones as on MS-DOS.  They do have the hooks
to add different file systems and you can buy utilities from third-parties
(soon at least) but I can't recommend it.
    There are some nice improvements over MS-DOS but I (as a developer)
would rather use U*X and would advise my friends who just want to run
useful software on a home machine to buy a Mac.

The contents of this note are, of course, my and only my responsibility.
Dave Fields. Gould CSD-Urbana.		USEnet:  ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!dfields
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801    ARPAnet: dfields@gswd-vms.arpa