Moose (You guys...)

[Gary D. Duzan]

=>
=>1)  Device Drivers:  We need to have user-installable device drivers.
=>      I personally prefer the Unix style of device driver, but the MS-DOS
=>      style isn't bad (it's just not as good, IMHO).  This way, we don't
=>      have to include ANY I/O in the kernel; we can have a device
=>      named 'STDOUT' or 'TTY' or 'CON', and that device will
=>      represent the screen.  Our C RTL can then send output from
=>      printf (), etc. to that device.

   We will need some basic device support for bootstrapping, but beyond
that I agree.

=>2)  Rather than saying 'This OS is a GUI!', I think that we should allow
=>      the user to write his/her own shell.  I personally would like
=>      a csh-ish interface; I could add my own.  One of my friends likes
=>      the X interface; he could add his own X-like interface.

   
   Anyone with enough spare time can build their own interface to
practically any system (with the possible exception of MacOS,) so I
don't see why we should be any different. The question is, what do WE
build. If we have an object-oriented system then we should show it off
with object-oriented shells and GUI.

=>3)  Making the kernel object-oriented would be a real pain in the rear,
      and also increase the amount of required memory.  I say that
=>      we do a traditional kernel, and then write OO shells for it in
=>      C++ and ObjectPascal.  That way, we'd still be able to code like:
=>
=>         class MyInputDevice : public GenericInputDevice
=>           {
=>              ...
=>           }
=>
=>      but the kernel could be kept simple.

   I agree that the basic kernel itself needn't be object-oriented, as
long as it has an object-oriented interface and support for system and
user objects.

=>4)  We need to spend quite a bit of time on the high-level specifications
=>      before we move on to the low-level stuff.  Let's not worry about
=>      implementation stuff until we've got the abstract stuff down.

   I think we've reached a concensus on this point.

                                        Gary Duzan
                                        Time  Lord
                                    Third Regeneration
                         Humble Practitioner of the Computer Arts