LispOS directly on hardware or on Unix kernel?

[Chris Hanson]

At 3:57 AM -0500 4/30/97, Martin Cracauer wrote:
>Let me turn the question: What exactly would you do in a pure LispOS
>that you can't in a system containing a Unix kernel and running a
>multithreaded Lisp on it?

Well, it's not so much what I would do, but what I would get to
hack/build/explore:

* A kernel, written in Lisp (with assembly where necessary).
* Device drivers for common hardware, written in Lisp (with assembly where
necessary).
* An integrated compiler, written in Lisp.
* An integrated editor, written in Lisp.
* A window system & enivornment, written in Lisp.
* A filesystem with ACLs, versioning, and transparent remote file access,
written in Lisp.

In short, an OS that I'd actually enjoy hacking on and exploring, because
it's the kernel I really care about, not the upper layers.  And if the
kernel's not written in Lisp, I may as well just wait for another non-Unix
non-C operating system to come around.