Path: utzoo!yunexus!unicus!craig
From: craig@unicus.UUCP (Craig D. Hubley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga IPC should be the Amiga Unix IPC!
Message-ID: <2531@unicus.UUCP>
Date: 13 Apr 88 21:22:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: unicus.2531
Posted: Wed Apr 13 17:22:35 1988
References: <2504@unicus.UUCP> <290@boing.UUCP>
Reply-To: craig@Unicus.COM (Craig D. Hubley)
Organization: Unicus Software Inc., Toronto, Ont.
Lines: 59

In article <290@boing.UUCP> dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes:
>In article <2504@unicus.UUCP> *I* write:
>>to Amiga Unix tasks (remember AmigaDOS will run as a task under Amiga Unix).
>
>As far as I know,  AmigaDOS will not be running as a task under Amiga Unix.

Arg.  Clarification, Commodore ?

*CONDITIONAL FLAME ON* - read only if AmigaDOS doesn't run under Amiga Unix.
	Boy oh boy, now I get to have *either* a standard multiuser
	operating system *or* a good singleuser multitasking operating system,
	but not both.  No, Unix is not a good singleuser multitasking OS.
	Sun-3s take an abhorrent amount of time just to open windows, and
	you can simply forget writing programs that are actually three or
	four communicating tasks under Unix, which you could do conveniently
	before.  You could simply move Intuition to Unix, and forget the Amiga
	OS,and then *wait, wait, wait* while everybody moves their software to
	Unix and charges an extra hundred bucks for the effort.  Right.
	Not even Apple or IBM has been this stupid, and they don't care either.
	A/UX and OS/2 will supposedly run old Mac and old MS-DOS programs.
	Again, if my software investment is nullified, why should I buy an
	A2500UX instead of another system, something I can get binary licences
	for ?  For those who want to do truly interesting things, combining
	Unix tool power with existing Amiga video/graphic strengths, there
	are better things to do than make them write all software anew.
	Just like the bus argument, I have better things to do with my software
	dollars than buy a `new, improved' version of every single tool I use,
	the sole `new, improvement' being that it runs under Amiga Unix.
*CONDITIONAL FLAME OFF*

Commodore already knows this, I assume, since the Bridgeboard is relatively
well integrated with the Amiga environment.  It should be even easier to 
integrate the other way, implementing the same interface on top of a somewhat
different back end.  Porting AmigaDOS to Amiga Unix couldn't be so difficult
as to warrant nullifying everyone's software investment and giving up goodies
like lightweight tasks, particularly useful for user interfaces, etc.

Technical question, particularly for those involved in writing ARP:
How difficult is it to make Amigadog run under Unix as a task ?
Things like device drivers and the like might have to be rewritten
to speak through Unix to get at the hardware, slowing it down,
but what else would have to be done ?  After all, you can afford a
slowdown if you're running a 16MHz 68020 instead of a 7MHz 68000.

How compatible would programs be, working under a Unix Intuition ?

>However, in the IPC discussion, it does make sense to think about
>machine<->machine communication where the other machine may not be
>necesarily running Amigados.

You bet it does.  Especially when it may be that *nothing* runs Amigados. :-)
For one thing, it would be a snap to convert local (on-machine) service
requests to remote (over network) service requests if the IPC/RPC protocols
were similar enough.

	Craig Hubley, Unicus Corporation, Toronto, Ont.
	craig@Unicus.COM				(Internet)
	{uunet!mnetor, utzoo!utcsri}!unicus!craig	(dumb uucp)
	mnetor!unicus!craig@uunet.uu.net		(dumb arpa)