Xref: utzoo comp.arch:4594 comp.lang.misc:1535 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 From: nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Universal OS (striving for flexibility) Message-ID: <4624@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Date: 3 May 88 23:35:07 GMT References: <769@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> <76700017@uiucdcsp> <843@actnyc.UUCP> <762@l.cc.purdue.edu> <1556@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> <438@ruuinf.UUCP> Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpf.UUCP (00704a-Liber,N.J.) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 31 In article <438@ruuinf.UUCP> piet@ruuinf.UUCP (Piet van Oostrum) writes: >In article <1556@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal) writes: > A universal operating system will be designed when someone very clever, > imaginative, and artistic creates a reasonably simple model of computer > use that encorportates the needs of all users and is economically > implementable in the technology of the day. If this should ever occur, > the universal model will be much more likely to encorporate _none_ of > the ideas of past "programming geniuses" than to encorporate them all. >How about a Turing Machine? I don't know. The infinitely long tape that it needs are usually out of stock and are very expensive!! :-) :-) Seriously, the problem with a Turing machine is that it is simple with respect to the person implementing it. Programming it is a nightmare! (For those of you who don't think so, show me your Turing machine that implements the Unix kernal. Until then, ... :-)) A universal OS (as well as a universal programming language), assuming that one exists, must be simple and intuitive to use. I, as the user, should never have to look at a manual or go to a help screen. It should be tailorable to me automatically (by using heuristics, for instance), and if I am looking at someone else's work it should, to me, look like my own. Oh, well. Enough dreaming. :-) -- _ __ NEVIN J. LIBER ..!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 (312) 510-6194 ' ) ) "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / / _ , __o ____ with an Underdog super-energy pill." / (_