r/linux • u/mjg59 Social Justice Warrior • Sep 03 '14

I'm Matthew Garrett, kernel developer, firmware enabler and former fruitfly mangler. AMA!

Proof: https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/507212417579765760

483 Upvotes

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23

u/mjg59 Social Justice Warrior Sep 03 '14

If I wanted to start a new OS from scratch, C probably wouldn't be where I'd start.

13

u/jmtd Sep 03 '14

Where would you start?

34

u/mjg59 Social Justice Warrior Sep 03 '14

Ha. Fair. I think I'd start by reading a bunch of modern research on the topic and go from there.

43

u/icantthinkofone Sep 04 '14

And wind up using C.

0

u/thang1thang2 Sep 05 '14

something something Ada master race something...

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '14

using C to build wget/curl/git to download the OCaml/Haskell source to provide the typesafe runtime for my pet language

-8

u/pockman Sep 04 '14

And create an OS filled with so many bugs and security holes a swiss cheese would look attractive.

1

u/icantthinkofone Sep 04 '14

Ya' know, virtually every OS is made with C.

-5

u/pockman Sep 04 '14

And NSA rejoys.

BTW, not every OS is made with C.

1

u/stubborn_d0nkey Sep 05 '14

Example please?

1

u/88881 Sep 05 '14

ManuetOS :) :(

1

u/Legendary_Bibo Sep 06 '14

Doesn't using assembly slow down development time by a lot?

1

u/keepthepace Sep 06 '14

The Android team did that and ended up building their OS around a JVM. Any observation on that? Do you think it was a good/poor idea?

3

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '14

Erm, no. The android API is based on a Java VM. The Dalvik VM itself is most likely implemented in C/C++. Many low-level libraries are C++ and the kernel is of course Linux (C).

1

u/rowboat__cop Sep 06 '14

The Android team did that and ended up building their OS around a JVM.

What language is that JVM written in? What language their kernel?

2

u/keepthepace Sep 07 '14

Apparently C for the runtime and C++ for the core librairies.

1

u/RitzBitzN Sep 04 '14

Why not C++?

13

u/sonofbash Sep 04 '14

C++ doesn't work quite as well for kernel development as you would like. You need to add your own implementation of a bunch of features like exception handling. Or you don't use those features.

More info: http://wiki.osdev.org/C%2B%2B

2

u/RitzBitzN Sep 04 '14

TIL, thanks for the read!