Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!eutrc3!rcst8
From: rcst8@eutrc3.UUCP (Pieter Schoenmakers)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Operating Systems (Re: archimedes)
Keywords: Archimedes, OS
Message-ID: <379@eutrc3.UUCP>
Date: 24 Nov 88 09:13:11 GMT
References: <1216@dutesta.UUCP> <2212@ficc.uu.net> <372@eutrc3.UUCP> <2254@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: rcst8@eutrc3.UUCP (Pieter Schoenmakers)
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Lines: 30

In article <2254@ficc.uu.net> Peter da Silva writes:

>In article <372@eutrc3.UUCP>, rcst8@eutrc3.UUCP (Pieter Schoenmakers) writes:
>> You're saying that a computer
>> without multitasking doesn't have an OS! That's nonsense.
>
>That's more or less what I'm saying. If I might be so bold as to quote from
>one of my heroes, Douglas Comer, in _Operating_System_Design,_the_Xinu
>Approach_:
>
>	"Although Xinu is small enough to fit in the text, it includes
>	 all the components that constitute an ordinary operating system:
>	 memory management, process management, process co-ordination and
>	 synchronisation, interprocess communication, real-time clock
>	 management, device drivers, intermachine communication (networks),
>	 and a file system."

Ok. Xinu is Multi-Tasking. Arthur (Archimedes' OS) is Single-Tasking. If you
strip all the Multi-Tasking stuff from the description above, you get:

         Memory Management, RTC Management, Device Drivers, Networks
         and (numerous!) FileSystems.

Well, every thing of this list is present in Arthur.
If it interests you: In April a new version of Arthur will be released. The
name will change too: RISC OS. This OS employs cooperative multitasking
AND all the features you want :-)

greetings,
---Tiggr