"Paul Rubin" <http://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > "Roose" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > My point was that you can't do a lot of hardware interface programming in > > pure Python -- there would be so much non-trivial code in C that it would be > > hard to call it a Python OS. > > Why do you say that? Is the same thing not true of C, where you need > some assembly code at the lowest levels? Because Linux has some > assembly code, would you say that it's not written in C?
It's a difference of degree, but an important difference. I haven't looked at Linux or Windows NT source, but my guess is the assembly used is just small functions for accessing special CPU instructions for atomicity, context switching, and the like. I KNOW they don't have huge amounts of assembly simply because they run on different architectures. But are you really going to write a virtual memory system in Python? Are you going to write a file system, and a task scheduler in Python? Are you going to have people write device drivers in Python? I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would be a poor engineering decision, and the rationale thus far seems to be "Python is cool, I like OSes, let's write a whole OS in Python". If that's not the case then let me know what your rationale is. The right tool for the right job. I love Python probably more than any other language. But it's not the right tool for every job. I don't know why people would think it is, just as C is not the right tool for every job (which is one of the reasons I learned Python, being a C programmer first). > > > So this basically proves my point -- that you need different hardware > > altogether in order to make an OS in a high level language like Lisp or > > Python. > > It doesn't prove anything of the sort. The Lisp hardware was needed > for performance reasons, back in the day. OK, then give me an example of Lisp OS that runs on a PC. I would like to install it on my PC tomorrow. Or maybe my Mac. That was your whole point, originally, that since it could be done in Lisp, why not Python? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
