lispOS goals?

[Fare Rideau]

Luca Pisati rightly pointed out:
>> I'm just trying to understand what are we trying to do here.
>> [follow 3 alternatives]

Richard Coleman answered:
> [...] I believe most people are interested in variations
> of either (1) or (2).  Options (3) is too ambitious and would probably
> never be completed.

Well, I happen to be interested in (3) [Radical new approach of an OS],
but in the frame of another project, Tunes.
I don't agree why it would _never_ be completed;
well, I admit no one (including me)-; did complete it _yet_.


As for not relying on a radical new approach,
what is the advantage of
(1) [free-standing lisp OS with traditional OS abstractions]
vs (2) [a lisp implementation running on top of a traditional OS] ?

   If you're satisfied with the current OS abstractions,
then (2) provides interoperation
with another running "industry standard" OS,
and provides you with free low-level drivers,
without taking you anything (or does it?).

   If you're not satisfied with current OS abstractions,
then what do you propose instead,
and where/how does it conflict with current OS design/implementations?


Before to look for a solution, we oughto identify the problem.
What exactly does the lispOS consist in?
   Is it a set of Lisp primitives
that cover all that is needed to program anything on a system?
What model does it propose?
   Can people still implement their own GC?
What if the system-provided GC is too slow,
or lacks a feature essential to someone?
   Perhaps we've been too much discussing about implementation topics,
and not enough what design exactly we're going to implement.

   In fact, many among you have already used lisp machines,
and may find it obvious what you wanna do,
while I, like most computer programmers on earth,
including almost all the younger generation,
have never had the chance to see/use a Lisp Machine,
having be stupefied by other, `strongly hyped' languages and OSes
(kudos to hbaker for the term).

   I appreciate any *affordable* pointer you could send to me;
[are there running LispM's in France?].


Kisses from the french Riviera,

== Fare' -- rideau@ens.fr -- Franc,ois-Rene' Rideau -- DDa(.ng-Vu~ Ba^n ==
Join the TUNES project for a computing system based on computing freedom !
                TUNES is a Useful, Not Expedient System
URL: "http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/rideau/Tunes/"