ToaruOS With Kernel Written From Scratch Is Still In Development

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ToaruOS With Kernel Written From Scratch Is Still In Development

Two years ago to the day the most-viewed article was about A Hobby Kernel and User-Space, Runs Mesa and GCC. That hobbyist OS written from scratch seemed promising back then but hadn't heard anything at all since. When deciding to check on the project today I was anticipating that it had died off, but surprisingly, it's still under development...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ToaruOS-Development-2016

[Steffo]

I respect everyone who writes an OS so far! But I think, Redox OS has good potential to be the next generation OS.

https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-summer-in-redox-15/

[Hi-Angel]

I respect everyone who writes an OS so far! But I think, Redox OS has good potential to be the next generation OS.

https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-summer-in-redox-15/

Last I heard, It was compatible with neither of existing drivers. It's a proof-of-concept. I'd rather expect (and I'd hope for it) that Linux kernel would start accepting Rust code. But it's nice to have a working kernel written in Rust, because it would be an important point in the discussion about Rust's place in the kernel.

[starshipeleven]

Rust's place in the kernel.

Over Torvalds dead body.

[Hi-Angel]

Over Torvalds dead body.

Well, let's not make of Linus a hated in the nation. I've read somewhere that in the time they tried C++, it was barely usable — like a slow or faulty machine code, and (obviously) nothing of C++14 features.

I remember reading some mailing post of Linus about a feature to the kernel that didn't make him happy, though good-looking in general (I can't remember what was it, I saw it ≈a few months ago), he put it like "…but I'm trusting to <maintainer_name>, if he thinks it worth it, so be it". I'd expect if there was a discussion starting with a good detailed mail about all the pros'n'cons of Rust, and maintainers would agree to the points, Linus would not hinder to the adoption of Rust in the kernel.

[timofonic]

Last I heard, It was compatible with neither of existing drivers. It's a proof-of-concept. I'd rather expect (and I'd hope for it) that Linux kernel would start accepting Rust code. But it's nice to have a working kernel written in Rust, because it would be an important point in the discussion about Rust's place in the kernel.

Despite any requirements of Linux/Linus, there's a totally essential one: Actively maintained Rust backend for GCC on par with LLVM one at least.

I think Rust needs this ASAP in order to become more widespread.

There's one, but it's very WIP and totally abandoned over a year ago...

[rust-dev] Rust testsuite (October 23, 2013
GCC mailing list: Rust front-end to GCC (December 3, 2013)
LWN: A Rust frontend for GCC (December 3, 2013)
Phoronix: Mozilla's Rust Language Gets A GCC Compiler Front-End (December 3, 2013)
[url=https://github.com/redbrain/gccrs]GitHub: Rust Front-end to GCC (July 17, 2015)[url]

Some people say that Rust is the new LLVM, but Rust uses LLVM itself and no other compiler supports it...

[tuuker]

Waste of C programmers time, they should help ReactOS kill windows someday.

[starshipeleven]

Well, let's not make of Linus a hated in the nation.

No, Torvalds is against the basic C++ features, C++14 isn't changing that.
Now grab some popcorn and read this (talking about C++ in git, but the same applies to kernel) http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/c++/linus

The relevant part:
In other words, the only way to do good, efficient, and system-level and portable C++ ends up to limit yourself to all the things that are basically available in C. And limiting your project to C means that people don't screw that up, and also means that you get a lot of programmers that do actually understand low-level issues and don't screw things up with any idiotic "object model" crap.

Now, I don't know Rust enough to extrapolate on his views, but he does have some very strict standards there.

[rabcor]

Rewritten kernel? Amazing.

And while I agree that maybe their time might be better spent on ReactOS, it's a different sort of project, they are circumwriting and re-writing the existing linux kernel with I assume a massive amount of backwards compatibility, ReactOS are shooting in the dark trying to guess at how to make the OS work like windows, it's harder, it's different, but even more amazing.

[Hi-Angel]

No, Torvalds is against the basic C++ features, C++14 isn't changing that.
Now grab some popcorn and read this (talking about C++ in git, but the same applies to kernel) http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/c++/linus

The relevant part:
In other words, the only way to do good, efficient, and system-level and portable C++ ends up to limit yourself to all the things that are basically available in C. And limiting your project to C means that people don't screw that up, and also means that you get a lot of programmers that do actually understand low-level issues and don't screw things up with any idiotic "object model" crap.

Now, I don't know Rust enough to extrapolate on his views, but he does have some very strict standards there.

Well, Rust would break quite a number of his arguments. It's not object-oriented, it doesn't have exceptions, and it would solve a number of common C errors.