From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2018 22:39:04 -0700 From: Kurt H Maier To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: <20180621053904.GA17419@wopr> References: <1529530542.3279707.1414877304.5B04A2FD@webmail.messagingengine.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1529530542.3279707.1414877304.5B04A2FD@webmail.messagingengine.com> Subject: Re: [9fans] What are you using Plan 9 for? Topicbox-Message-UUID: d80e95e2-ead9-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 10:35:42PM +0100, Ethan A. Gardener wrote: > > a sort of operating system where the primary interface to all tasks is > a Forth interpreter. I think we've talked about this in another venue some years back, but I often thing of the OpenFirmware implementation used by the OLPC XO-1 laptop. Instead of a BIOS or UEFI or linux trash in their stead, the system was managed by an OpenFirmware installation, much of which was written in Forth, and whose primary interface was a Forth shell. This environment had complete access to the hardware of the system, which was used by the project to create really comprehensive hardware diagnostics tools. I mostly used it for screwing around, but it was fairly complete; it supported the wifi hardware and the webcam, and I often thought I'd like a computer that just booted into this environment and stayed there. I'm glad to hear you're still experimenting along these lines. There's a lot of value in a system whose primary interface is the programming environment. I work with computers because of the Commodore VIC-20... and I wonder if I'd have ever given a damn about the field if my first exposure to computers involved a Modern User Experience. khM