Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!esosun!ucsdhub!sdcsvax!darrell
From: murray@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.os.research
Subject: Re: Wisdom, a pedantically named operating system
Message-ID: <4668@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: 24 Feb 88 07:39:03 GMT
Sender: darrell@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England
Lines: 40
Approved: mod-os@sdcsvax.uucp

>Frankly it doesn't sound like Wisdom is much of an operating system.  I

I admit that in the current traditional mode it isn't.  What should be
borne in mind is that operating systems tend to be getting smaller (IBM
excepting!).  By that I mean less and less is being done in the ``kernel''
and more and more is being done by ``user'' processes.

>would say it soulds much more like a monitor given the lack of support
>and protection such a loose organization implies.

All of the protection needed (well almost all) is afforded by the semantics
of occam, which at the moment is the only language that you'll be able to
use on it.

It may well appear like a monitor in some respects, but I think that is
wrong (suprisingly!).  What I hope I've got is the minimal subset of
``services'' that will allow anything else to be built on top of them, with
at least a reasonable degree of ease.  One comparison that could be drawn
is with Codd's Database requirements of a query language, which allow you
to do almost anything.  Possibly both with similar drawbacks.

>
>- John.
>---
>John F. Haugh II                  SNAIL:  HECI Exploration Co. Inc.
>UUCP: ...!ihnp4!killer!jfh                11910 Greenville Ave, Suite 600
>"Don't Have an Oil Well? ...              Dallas, TX. 75243
> ... Then Buy One!"                       (214) 231-0993 Ext 260
>
			Kevin
----
Kevin Murray, Dept. of Comp. Sci., University of York, York, UK, YO1 5DD

  "A dead body can be very difficult to explain,
		especially if it's your own"
	      -- Rod Gallowglass, A Wizard in Bedlam by Christopher Stasheff
  "I'm going to live forever, or die trying"
	      -- Vila, ??, Blake's Seven

  murray@uk.ac.york.minster or ..!uunet!mcvax!ukc!minster!murray