PowerNex: A Kernel Written In The D Programming Language

[Delgarde]

There is no God! Braindead programmers. I can't possibly understand why the fuck would you waste your life like this working on such useless shit.

Eh, you're wasting your life getting wound up about it. If it works for you, why not for them?

[GreatEmerald]

As someone whose preferred language is D, I like the concept of this. It's not (intended) to compete with actual OSs, it's a one-man project for a proof-of-concept that D can be used for making OS kernels. The main benefit of this I believe is the fact that it spreads the word of D further, by proving its versatility.

And no, C++14 and stuff don't fix the issues, because they can't be fixed within C++ itself. First off it would have to drop the whole C baggage, rework the template system (and drop the old one), drop the concept of manually-created header files, rework the concept of immutability, implement a garbage collector and move away from pointers, etc. and that can't realistically be done without making a new language. What the new standards do is just cherry-picking some concepts from D and putting it on top of the whole beast that C++ has become over the years.

And at least for me the most important thing about D is that writing code in it feels good: the code is readable, you don't have to worry about memory management and stuff, and all kinds of different programming paradigms can be combined into a cohesive whole with a well-defined syntax. Meanwhile in C++ you have to wrestle with all kinds of incompatible syntaxes (how many ways there are to do malloc/free or access pointers?), care about memory management for the simplest of things, try to decipher what all the custom templates and obscure modifiers for classes mean in others' code, deal with dependency conflicts between header and source files etc. It always feels like the language is something that puts barriers upon barriers to do the simplest things, whereas D makes it all as easy to do as possible.

[CochainComplex]

..interessting experiment go for it ...i would really like to know what haters would have said at this point to torvalds 30 years ago..you idiot there is unix ? everything starts as a little project it might fail it might get big ...no need to insult

[mr_tawan]

I don't see how someone, using their own time, their own money, their own afford, would make someone else get upset...

Everything starts from an experiment. If the results good then use it, if not just move on.

[M@yeulC]

d language is still good choice for kernel. on the other hand there is https://node-os.com/ with userspace writen in javascript. I'm waiting for them to reimplement kernel in js. this will be total brainfuck.

This reminded me of https://xkcd.com/1508/

[Edogaa]

Everytime a new project comes up, trying something 'different' for fun, some dumb user comes in angry that we aren't a hivemind that works collectively to only improve one existing system to bring down M$

[coder]

it's better to use that skill toward something everyone will benefit from or enjoy, rather than create something that will inevitably be abandoned some day. It just feels like a wasted effort on good manpower. There are other things you can code "for fun" that won't be completely overshadowed.

You seem to be stuck in the mindset that programmers are a scarce resource. In a world of a billion coders, there's plenty of room for irrelevant and pointless projects. I see it as being like guys with machine tools building some weird contraption in their basement or shed, which some of the same people might've done like 40 years ago.

Furthermore, if they're going to insist on using D, I'd prefer they code something pointless and irrelevant, that no one needs or uses.

[coder]

i prefer D over the old and ugly C/C++ languages

D is like a giant garbage bag of a language where they tried to answer the question of how many more features you could stuff into C++. For me, C++11/14 basically killed any legitimate argument for using D.

They were tired of being the only person who understood their D code.)

Exactly. I wonder if D doesn't serve a useful role in the universe as a honeytrap for people who tend to write overly-complex C++ code.

I don't see the point of any nerd rage over this effort. They can happily write their own OS, in their little corner of the net, and the rest of the world just continue not caring. Maybe they should call it D OS?
; )

[AdamOne]

One message for the immature, little brats on the board: if you're not a fan of someone trying something new, they are certainly not going to listen to you if throw tantrums like a five year old child.

Linux isn't great just because it's written in a particular language, it's great because it has a large portion of Linus Torvalds. Yes, there are many others that do a lot of heavy lifting but Torvalds is still to this day the main decision maker on what goes in and out of the kernel.

I don't think Torvalds is going to abandon what he's doing for a new language, even if he where to, it would take a lot of time. Computer code is still very effective in terms of file-size to actual execution of the computer.

Hopefully the Powernex coders are as wise as the linux coders, the future will tell Cheerio!

[Wild]

Thanks for writing a post about my Kernel

I'm trying to figure the license issue out, if i need to remove that source code and rewrite it from scratch I will.

Also I guess AMA