Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!daemon
From: miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Protected mamory (SIC)
Message-ID: <1989May11.193812.2552@cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 11 May 89 23:38:12 GMT
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 43


    Date: 11 May 89 17:22:34 GMT
    From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)


    I sincerely hope that the virtual memory in 7.0 IS NOT one large space
    shared by all processes--just like my present Mac but with more memory.

Lest this go by without an opposing view:

(Opinion) One of the stupidest things about current UNIX systems is that a
multiuser OS is being pressed into service as a singleuser multiprocessing
system. The issues are quite different. Developers and users are strangled
by too much protection offered by the kernel to "protect the user from
themself". Let the luser hang themselves by their own rope. The hacker will
thank you!

A single large address space makes IPC easier

A single large address space makes it easier for one process to debug
another (currently running process)

Protection issues needed to support multiple users aren't an issue with
single users.

A single large address space makes it easier to ADVISE or modify system
functions on the fly.

In short: for software development, I think a single large address space is
the way to go.

One may ask what this has to do with the MAC, since the MAC is clearly
anything BUT a software development environment. BUT... I'm becoming
convinced it may be a good cheap one, if you run the right software. With
APPLE now supporting and marketing Allegro CL (the first halfway decent
development environment for the MAC I'm aware of, at any rate -- blatent
opinion) the MAC may indeed become a contender in this area; particularly if
APPLE's intent is to compete with higher level workstation offerings by,
e.g. SUN. A unified address space really is the only way to do a lisp
workstation right...

Reams can be written on this subject, and already have been. The original
complaint was short, so this will be too.