From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <7f68bb19aa8d8ecb13d5f53c96524b1a@centurytel.net> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] porting from vs. porting to Plan 9 From: "Skip Tavakkolian" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 09:34:31 -0700 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Topicbox-Message-UUID: 70f26c60-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 > Whether Plan 9 libs on lunix are beneficial (to lunix) is also > questionable -- it's nice to have libdraw for example, but if not > widely adopted it is just a (very small, admittedly) drop of code in > the huge sea that is X. Besides, non-9fans have gotten used to > looking for familiar things in lunix, and it will be harder to educate > them of the _proper_ Plan 9 way in their world, on their turf, than to > bring them in ours -- they all end up liking Plan 9 at the end, but > that's because they are able to tear off the lunix-built habits by > being forced to live in a Plan 9 environment. >=20 I think that the cunning idea from Plan9 that one hopes would rub off on other OS'es is the filesystem protocol. I think turning other OSes into servers for various namespaces and then tying them together with something like a 9grids, is the way to go. Drawterm is a good example. > There is a great deal of opposition to bringing/porting other apps to > Plan 9, and I admit I was expecting to see the same opposition to > porting Plan 9's libs to other systems: "why would they want it there > anyway? throwing pearls before swine!" was going through my head. >=20 I think there could be other reasons for this. I would rather program graphics using libdraw because it would be save me time and effort just in dealing with various OS's graphic subsystem complexities. Doing things in libdraw, I would guess, not win the "flashy-eye-candy" contest; but if that is not what you're aiming at, it is okay. > You see, without the reason to run Plan 9 it'll just become yet > another dead operating system, just like Oberon recently discussed -- > the ideas from it live here to an extent, but the system itself has > long gone... Plan9 wont die. That is why it has the bunny. The bunny reproduces fast and can get under fences. So, go forth and multiply =E2=98=BA Seriously, I believe that if you could get other OSs to handle 9P, then having a 9grid would enable you to provide a namespace switching mechanism that gives you tighter integration than "visiting web pages" and email.