Explanation

[Tom Novelli]

On Sat, May 29, 1999 at 05:30:03PM -0400, Maneesh Yadav wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 29 May 1999, Birkas Mate wrote:
> > I had very similar feelings and thoughts as Maneesh had while i've read
> > the letters in the list, but i really don't get the point, why does any
> > others work hurt him (you) so much, even if it's a lower level stuff like
> > Retro.
> 
> It really doesn't hurt me at all.  But when you see someone going about
> something the wrong way with the wrong intentions, and when you know
> they're saying stuff that they cannot achieve because they are not
> familliar with the problem...it's hard not to stand up and say something.
> Tcn is saying that there will be drivers, games and his OS will suppourt
> all these wonderful things that new OS should (as cited in my previous
> letters) it shows a real ignorance of the field.

On the contrary, what you're saying suggests to me that you haven't gotten
your hands dirty, that you haven't bridged the gap between theory and
reality, that your head is up in the clouds somewhere.  I can achieve
anything that can be achieved, all it takes is dedication.  I'm getting
these things done, a piece at a time.  Tomorrrow I'll have it installable on
the hard drive... orthogonal persistence isn't far off.  No it won't do what
TUNES is supposed to do... but it'll be fast and simple, and that's what I
care about.

> He's already defining his memory mangment scheme, tasking etc; when he
> hasn't seem to have even really consider the bigger issues, or the the
> that no small team will be able to inpliment them efficiently in some real
> time span.

Where did you read that line of bs?!  Manpower is great for construction,
farming, assembly lines, warfare... but software design?  That's like a
collaboration between a hundred novelists -- the result will be huge and
disjointed, if it's ever finished.  In all my experience, individuals and
small groups get things done faster and better.  It also helps if you do
more work and less reading and talking... not that an occasional argument
isn't fun :-}

Is TUNES is too big?  You split off your project, I'll split off mine...
retro has enough momentum on its own.  Wait, what difference would it make? 
These are two complementary projects (i.e., HLL and LLL).  TUNES wouldn't be
complete without either of them.. hence the term "subprojects".

> As I said, until you consider the things that are truly challenging
> (distrbuted, parallel, portability, GC etc. etc.) this is nothing more
> than an exercise in an undergraduate intro to OS's.

I've considered all these things (there, now you know).  I never mentioned
them because experimentation and research have answered all my questions,
and I don't have any earth-shattering new ideas to share.  Undergraduate
work, perhaps.. but it's progressing fast.  At this rate, you'll be using my
OS to write your doctoral dissertation ;)

Some folks believe you can automate everything.. simply create an
ultra-high-level system and it'll take care of all the low-level stuff. 
There's no substitute for hard work, human intelligence, creativity and
common sense.  I'll do the critical stuff by hand.  What good is distributed
computing if overhead takes up 90% of the cpu time?  And what good is AI if
you're long dead by the time it comes about?

Oh well, enough of that.  It's like the pointless argument between pure math
and applied math.  Now back to work.. I mean sleep..

--
Tom Novelli <tcn@tunes.org>

"You just dropped a hundred grand on an education you coulda had for a
dollar fifty in late charges at the public library?" -matt damon