Beginning Work [djo9]

[Dan Odom]

Peter Mueller Said:

> Therefore we have to create a module, which provides an interface with three
> primitives, namely:
> 
> 	send(destination, message)
> 	receive(from, message)
> 	reply(to)

Agreed.

> Where we still have to get to an agreement is:
> 
> o How looks a destination address? 
>   Should it look like this: (machine address, object id, method id)
>   or only like this: (object id, method id)
>   or like this: (machine address, process id)
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That one.  Each process should have a 'message-handler' object that
will receive messages and notify the rest of the process.

Kind of like:   if (MsgHandler.ismsg ());  // Check to see if msg. is waiting.
                switch (MsgHandler.message)
                  // etc...

> o How is address translation done?
>   We have to specify the size of the address's parts.
>   Here we have to say definitely where we expect Moose to run. Should it be
>   able to run Moose on several machines or only on one? The latter will not
>   require a machine address part, but that's clear.

Explain what you mean by 'more than one machine'.

> Next: Forgive my english, I've had a long long night yesterday and it seems
> that I'm standing 1 m besides myself ...

That's OK.  Sometimes I forget English... :-)

> P.S: One for the compiler designer.

Woah!  SINGULAR??!!  Am I the only one interested in the compiler????
Geez, I sure hope not.

But if I must work alone, I must work alone.  Oh, well.

> I don't think, that the missing of a
> compiler is a thing which disables us to start writing. If you provide the
> possibility to use interfaces to other languages (preferably some which are
> in common use, like C++), it's possible to start writing. (BTW: As some code
> of the kernel must be done in Assembler, there must be at last an interface
> to that sort of language ...)

Correct.  BUT, we haven't even decided what language we'll use (or if
we have, no one told me).  Work on the C/C++ libraries can begin as
soon as the kernel API is developed, and some work can be done before it is
complete.  This assumes we're using C(++).

How's this:  Decide what language we'll use.  I'm in favor of C++, but
if you all want something else we'll use something else.  Give me the
name of the language and I'll hammer out an initial spec for the RTL.


-- 
Dan Odom
danodom@matt.ksu.ksu.edu -- Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS

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