On Wed, Nov 05, 2003 at 02:24:51AM +0100, Molnar Peter wrote:
> One of my teachers keeps telling me, that you can't do complicated
> things in a simple way. Linux lacks simplicity in it's basic design,
> because it wasn't a priority, and I don't think it is today.
*Laugh*. That's funny because, of course, Linux is the philosophical
successor to Unix--and the whole Unix mantra was "do one thing,
but do it well" and "simplify". The entire Unix kernel, around
v6 or v7, was about 10,000 lines of code. Yes, much we take for
granted--especially networking-- was missing, but nevertheless, it
championed the then-remarkable concept that most of the code that had,
until that time, been embedded in the OS (and incidentally privileged
code) could run not only outside the kernel, but as user-space programs.
What programs? Like, the command interpreter. Or rather, interpreter*s*;
another radical idea--there could BE more than one interface to the OS in
common use.
Like, all record management services; you wouldn't BELIEVE the problems
I had teaching Unix internals to a mainframe/COBOL jock; it went something
like:
"So who manages the records?"
"You do."
"But how does the operating system lock records???"
"It doesn't."
"HOW DOES IT PROTECT RECORDS?"
"It doesn't. It locks a range of bytes."
"A range of BYTES?"
"Yep. Files are just streams of bytes."
"Where are the record delimiters?"
"Doesn't matter; the OS doesn't *care* about records."
"WHAT?????"
But your teacher is hitting on an important point--one the Gates &
Co. have tried to minimize. You *can't* do complicated things in a
simple way; and the entire range of managing a real OS *is* complicated.
They've tried to make believe it isn't, and that Windows can be reduced
to point'n'click and a lot of predefined behaviors.
Which is a good part of why Windows crashes, has bugs, is insecure, etc.;
and why there's an entire industry built around getting around the default
behaviors and tuning built into stock Windows...
But boy, do we digress...
--
Dave Ihnat
ignatz@xxxxxxxxxx
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