[9fans] Plan 9 or Inferno, which ot choose?

[9fans] Plan 9 or Inferno, which ot choose?

[Alexander L]

Hi again :-)

Another questions, when do we need plan 9 and Inferno? They seem like the
same thing but I feel there's a difference between them. Are there any web
sites
from bell labs which related to inferno?


--
Art is not the same thing you do with science.
However, scientific researching connects engineering, design and art
altogether.

[9fans] Re: Plan 9 or Inferno, which ot choose?

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

Alexander L wrote:
> Another questions, when do we need plan 9 and Inferno? They seem like
> the same thing but I feel there's a difference between them.

There are similarities in some ways and differences in others.
The main difference is the environment intended for the systems.
Plan 9 is meant for use by humans in a full interactive development
environment, while Inferno is meant for embedded appliances.
That difference pretty much determined the difference in their
implementation.  For example, Inferno expects all applications to
be developed in a single language (Limbo) which is compiled into
a universal object code (byte code) that is then interpreted in
a variety of different devices running Inferno, while on Plan 9
each target architecture has its own native object code and an
application has to be compiled anew for each new platform.

[9fans] Re: Plan 9 or Inferno, which ot choose?

[Michael Jeffrey]

They are similar in that they both virtualise resources in the
network through the aggressive, application of a simple,
unifying protocol.  This is contrast to the approach adopted
by other technologies (for example Java/Jini) which are
linguistic by nature. A linguistic approach to distribution requires
the implementation of a program (execution environment for the
language) around the network - such programs are typically large.
In general, an approach based on distribution of protocol not
program is likely to be more profitable.

Inferno takes the ideas of Plan 9 further still and
virtualises the entire OS.  As a consequence it can run
native on bare hardware and also hosted on top of an
existing OS (Windows, Linux, Solaris, ...).

Which to choose though?  Plan 9 is a C environment for application
development, Inferno is Limbo - so that may sway you one way
or the other.  Inferno does not necessarily require the replacement
of an existing OS, which may also influence the decision.  Perhaps
use both.

A full description of Inferno can be found at www.vitanuova.com and
also details of how to obtain the source code.


Alexander L <alex-sci@freenet.co.nz> wrote in message
news:969693940.635831@news...
> Hi again :-)
>
> Another questions, when do we need plan 9 and Inferno? They seem like the
> same thing but I feel there's a difference between them. Are there any web
> sites
> from bell labs which related to inferno?
>
>
> --
> Art is not the same thing you do with science.
> However, scientific researching connects engineering, design and art
> altogether.