Re: [9fans] alright, this should be interesting

[Tim Newsham <newsham@lava.net>]

> Tim,
> You are missing the point of what I said:

I must be, because I still dont agree with your point.

> In other words, if you have a crufty kernel, you'll have a smelly
> compiler,
> and vice-versa.

Why?  You could build a fresh smelling compiler like 8c/8a/8l.

> >> kencc wouldn't have happened on linux, for example.
>
> i.e. if you have just implemented the 15th optional parameter to
> the
> asynciowithorwithoutsignalandoptionalscattergatherfromthe19thaddresszone
> () system call,

You don't need to change any of the system calls to build an emulation
layer.

> which supplies a bitmask of signal numbers and the days of the week on
> which to send them in the event of there being a 'c' in the month name,
> then adding the
> __asm____stuff___3_registers_and_a_status_mask_up_your_nose() inline to
> gcc to make it run 10 times faster
> seems like a ReallyGoodIdea(tm).

You dont have to play with gcc/gas cruft either.

> > The "personality" can be completely isolated from the kernel.
>
> Yes, but you've still gotta struggle through six piles of elephant
> excrement to get there,
> by which time your brain is soup, and you're muttering about how to
> implement a 15th way to map
> all the odd-numbered framebuffers into someone else's address space.

Now, I'm not saying that working through six piles of elephant
excrement is easy, but some of us do this for work on a daily basis.
So yah, the person who wrote the emulation layer would have to
get their feet wet, but the users of an emulation layer hardly
need to worry about such things.

> Well, we're talking oranges and (Posix-compliant) apples, so it's hard
> to agree:
> you're talking about implementations, I'm talking about philosophical
> approaches to problem solving.

Perhaps this is why I don't see your point...

but.. if you were to go in to work one day and found that some
linux (*bsd, slolaris, win32, etc..) box that you used on a daily
basis was running a plan9 emulation layer that was running rio,
acme, 9p and the whole shebang, how would it matter to you what
was under the covers?

> 	DaveL.

Tim N.