[LC++]OS Programming

Paul Gearon pag at PISoftware.com
Mon Sep 30 02:39:01 UTC 2002


On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Keith Schincke wrote:

> Atheos comes to mind as a C++ written OS. I have not heard about them in a
> year (maybe I was just working too much ;))
>
> This web site lists off a number of OSes and a few of them are in C++. I
> donno how fuctional they are. Atheos looked pretty good and was posix
> (mostly)
>  http://tunes.org/Review/OSes.html
>
> Maybe they are just too hard to design.

In the case of Linux it's due to performance and size.  Polymorphism
requires vtables, and vtables slow everything down considerably.

C++ also naturally creates larger binaries.  That's normally OK, because
you can create much more complex and functional software because of the
design benifits afforded you by using C++, and size and speed aren't
normally an issue (buy bigger hardware if you have a problem).  However
it's no good for an OS where size and speed DO matter.

Regards,
Paul Gearon

Software Engineer                Telephone:   +61 7 3876 2188
Plugged In Software              Fax:         +61 7 3876 4899
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