From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Sam <sah@softcardsystems.com>
To: <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] GCC3.0 [Was; Webbrowser]
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0302061009080.11322-100000@carotid.ccs.lanl.gov>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.30.0302061213450.20787-100000@athena>
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Date: Thu,  6 Feb 2003 12:44:51 -0500
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 51f1a976-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

>
> > I like the approach that believes CPU cycles can be bought cheaper than
> > developer minutes.
>
> that's fine if your idea of the world is developer minutes. But there's
> this other thing called "the guys who pay the bill minutes", i.e.
> (l)users, and they are less willing to take slower systems.
>

Aside:
They're also less willing to change their computing environment
due to the false belief that system interfaces are incremental;
anything not resembling WIMP is met with resistance.  I personally
believe our approach is better, but I'll settle for "different"
simply because you either get it or you don't.  It's just not a
matter of whether my window system is faster than yours.

Since 9's end users are developers, it makes sense to compare our view
of "speed" with others.  Rob did a great job of building a system
that lacks barriers to developing software; everything flows very
nicely.  I wouldn't trade that for a TCP implementation that runs
10% faster.

> Anyway, I am not taking exception to the decisions behind Plan 9 *in it's
> current state*, I am merely asking: now that we have a model for an OS
> that looks like a far better model than what *nux* offers, can we speed
> that OS up to be competitive without destroying it? Or is what we have
> about as good as it will get?

I just don't understand what you conceive as "slow."  Speedups should be
done only where they're demonstrably necessary - not because the
"competitor" can do it in n less microseconds.  Besides, you're
comparing *nix to something resembling UNIX.  It just doesn't work.
Sure, UNIX was the computation king in its day, but that was
accomplished with solid design.

Look at it this way; 9 transcends the speed race by keeping the
system "fast enough" as opposed to chasing an unnecessary goal.
If the "competition" wants to compare microseconds, let 'em.
While they're busy tweaking I'll be developing software to
do something useful.  I suspect my peers will too.

Sam