[1503] in java-interest
Re: Systems Programming Oriented Java
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Christiansen)
Wed Sep 6 10:26:30 1995
To: java-interest@java.sun.com
From: mikec@metronet.com (Mike Christiansen)
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 1995 06:35:36 LOCAL
>Most OSes today are dynamically configurable. SVR4 based systems use loadable
>modules to add system calls and device drivers, Windows uses DLLs and VBXes,
>the Mac has "inits" etc. Java has "classes". Java programs "feel" a bit
>ungainly on hosted systems (like UNIX) because when it was originally designed
>it was the OS, not running on one. If you imagine the 'java' program as the
>kernel, then an "application" is simply the initial class you invoke. Its
>somewhat forth like in that writing classes adds new features to the system
>which can then be invoked by other classes etc, etc.
The same is true for Smalltalk. It completely encapsulates the underlying OS
in a set of classes. Like java, (or is java like ST?) the developer never has
to see the ugly underside of the OS and their work is completely os & platform
independent.
>As a C/Kernel hacker from the "early" Sun I share your mistrust of
>garbage collection systems, however we have some very bright folks
>(Bill Joy being one of them) who are convinced that GC based systems
>are as viable for OS work as the current alloc/free schemes. The
>assertion is that GC systems are reaching a level of maturity that
>optimizing compilers have, that is to say they do more of what you
>want and less of what you say. :-)
Yes, but is there going to be a more advanced "generational" gc in the near
future? The mark & sweep which is currently in place will become slow with
large applications / object spaces; especially when the Java system is an OS
with many applications running under (on top of?) it.
thanks,
mike.
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Talking Heads
Mike Christiansen
mikec@metronet.com
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