Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!killer!gtmvax!dms3b1!dave
From: dave@dms3b1.UUCP (Dave Hanna)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: QNX Operating System
Summary: Pain in the neck to work with, but it does perform.
Keywords: operating system QNX
Message-ID: <201@dms3b1.UUCP>
Date: 29 May 89 04:06:18 GMT
References: <634@pmafire.UUCP> <935@mks.UUCP>
Reply-To: dave@dms3b1.UUCP (Dave Hanna)
Distribution: na
Organization: Infotouch Systems, Inc., Dallas
Lines: 49

In article <935@mks.UUCP> wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) writes:
>I did some work for Quantum once, and used QNX for a couple of years. 
>It is very good, with a couple of caveats.
>
>One is that QNX is close to Unix, but not quite.  For example, the
>options to their commands are often different that Unix's.  And if
>you're a programmer, their system calls are just close enough to be
>frustrating.  However, I understand they are cleaning things up in this
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>area. 
> --
>     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251

I have about two weeks experience with QNX heading a project team
implementing a communications program.  My experience with it as
a new user suggest that frustrating is not a strong enough word.
It seems that every time I turn around, I'm bumping into a new feature
and asking "Are they so incredibly stupid that they don't KNOW that
there is a standard way of doing that, or are they so incredibly
arrogant that they think their way is better than the rest of the
world's?"  They have enough of the library calls that you think
you're going to be okay, then you run into totally illogical omissions
(example, there is qsort, but no bsearch).  Perhaps the greatest
annoyance is their use of an ASCII Record Separator (RS, hex 1e)
as a new line, in place of the good ol' Line Feed, \n, hex 0a.
And an assymetric tty translation, such that you cannot send a file
out over a serial port and receive it back and end up with files that
compare!

The performance appears to be there (it was chosen because it seemed
to be the easiest way to keep up with a 19.2Kb input stream without
flow control - on an 8MHz 286!), but it gives the impression that
it was written by a bunch of hackers over-impressed with there
own cuteness (example - the debugger has a command "Find And Fix Bugs"
whose sole documentation says"This command should be used when a 
supervisor looks over you[sic] shoulder in the middle of a debugging
session."  When entered, the command responds "I see no bugs here.").

I'm sure that, as I become more used to it, many of these petty annoyances
will diminish.  Right now, they are a royal pain.

   Dave Hanna


-- 
Dave Hanna,  Infotouch Systems, Inc. |  "Do or do not -- There is no try"
P.O. Box 584, Bedford, TX 76095      |                        - Yoda
(214) 358-4534   (817) 540-1524      |
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