From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750736AbWDYC6j (ORCPT ); Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:58:39 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751356AbWDYC6j (ORCPT ); Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:58:39 -0400 Received: from nproxy.gmail.com ([64.233.182.189]:20913 "EHLO nproxy.gmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750736AbWDYC6i convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:58:38 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=XZ8z+8dE267mf2nFS/5TGgfpBDk5um5O8zy2dUfUG3ha2Yhbau4lCZI2qWiY+HlyNYcUYbnqG0AoyilGXoolhQ/kkbZGsacG3rFfj5IBgj+39kGgt+xL4i2lJ84eiWp5DsqDHw0vXpq1Ohi6TCBxcssiewriYawFAfPbdvIsrh8= Message-ID: <9f7850090604241958r55c17c48nb723f22c35253129@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 19:58:37 -0700 From: "marty fouts" To: "linux-os (Dick Johnson)" Subject: Re: C++ pushback Cc: "Linux-Kernel," In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Disposition: inline References: <4024F493-F668-4F03-9EB7-B334F312A558@iomega.com> <444D44F2.8090300@wolfmountaingroup.com> <1145915533.1635.60.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20060425001617.0a536488@werewolf.auna.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On 4/24/06, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote: > It is possible to compromise a bit and use a slightly higher-level > procedural language called C. One loses control of everything with > any other language. Note that before C was invented, all operating > system code was written in assembly. Even if by "operating system" you mean kernel, this turns out not to be true. Operating systems written in other 'moderate-level' languages such as Fortran predate C. (Once upon a time, a company called Pr1me had an OS called PrimeOS, written in Fortran.) My all time favorite OS, RSTS/E, was largely written in a Dec variant of BASIC, called BASIC-PLUS. High level languages have been invented just for writing OSes (BLISS) and OSes have been successfully written in a LISP, PL/1, and even C++. The last OS I worked on was almost entirely in C++ and worked ok. What you don't want to do is add a new language to a system that was largely written in another language. It's tempting to add C++ to a large C system because C and C++ are similar, but it's almost always a disaster, because you organize large systems much differently if you design them for C++.