From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nikita Karetnikov Subject: DreamOS Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:01:00 +0400 Message-ID: <87620lhb9f.fsf@karetnikov.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:54306) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UISuM-0003vG-DE for bug-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:59:04 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UISuK-0005vx-0n for bug-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:59:02 -0400 Received: from [2a01:7e00::f03c:91ff:fedf:181] (port=36335 helo=cooksoni.karetnikov.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UISuJ-0005vm-R7 for bug-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:58:59 -0400 List-Id: Bug reports for GNU Guix List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-guix-bounces+gcggb-bug-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: bug-guix-bounces+gcggb-bug-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: bug-guix@gnu.org --=-=-= Yesterday I read this paper [1] which describes how a generalization can be used to boost performance and improve UX. I don't see a way to implement anything similar without rewriting the entire system from scratch. But I may be wrong. What do you think? The store is definitely a step in the right direction. However, there is still room for improvement: "Deep down, an operating system is nothing but a manager of many databases. Indeed, a file system, the process table, routing tables, list of known AppleShare servers, revision control system (projector) data, Think C projects - they are all databases. Unfortunately, despite a sizable share of common functionality and interface, every one of them is implemented and managed separately.Why not to trade a multitude of "custom" database managers for a single well-designed distributed database manager?" "However, the unification is not complete. While it is possible to open /proc/1024 to get hold of a process with id 1024 (to find out who owns this process and when it was created, if for nothing else), one cannot rm /proc/1024 to kill the process, and one cannot ls /proc/1024/open_files to see the list of all open files for this process. Although why not?" "The configuration of a UNIX system is specified and controlled by a huge tangle of plain text files: /etc/hosts, sendmail.cf, syslog.conf, inetd.conf, /etc/uucp/Systems to name just very few. .INI files on some other systems are also plain ASCII. Even MacOS caved in a little with a System Folder:Hosts, although it is a very isolated example on a Mac. Note that just because symbols displayed on screen must be in ASCII, the information stored on disk does not have to be in the same form. Still, ASCII configuration files abound, for a very simple reason: they can be modified with any text editor from ex and edlin upwards, and can be viewed and created even without an editor, with a cat command." "There is no need to learn the syntax of a specific configuration file, and no wasting of the CPU time on parsing that text file and reporting errors if any." [1] http://okmij.org/ftp/papers/DreamOSPaper.html --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJRSk3BAAoJEM+IQzI9IQ38xacP/jMY5kl1hnVjShelB6YN9jqo qtrIEbSXcTjoVXVuYAUcjshPiBcon+NgSOkwRUN0TsfcrRhDx0e1c0vZH5oHcLiX UzVeMQbnepsXoPTzdAXbnWNLMbEuVdL7XsxFMDOB961YfIg1cX02qqnSFMdfRXx/ ByOJQYVxKTtZ9DH3iVkjYrEpnR78UrnMuatQ9+3WBn54XeG8K3QDONT54m7Houm3 ziCaNZh057mX+9aBJLBCMNOsSDNuQ2k1jIROg3Z6i2e4pYB4TDlVj75AU6nGGDH3 augLSKsY01SLLedKG/LY4hkJdumBS98USEQcgarQMSwk9ejfbUgkDr2HKTbEe+EV HSqpmqrMYIpQKEZwlh7LoDbQU4Xon8AY/t11I8koNpEIphjyEgBSxdBOusrV/wuu p2PhLSbQvJ4FiiRR14iSauu3ctHJj7vSj2mIPteq8u0IYj8IDf7XlEVgJe4Cdp9Q wA5/rHOehgy7kCdo/gbc7LrI8JbQlT4IpEsLEGdwvvSR9Y0LVi5Y79PLvQJc+7lT wtlfjnad5picRIb/aR0UXN9u1Q5totmRBXzvb5P/GKQJyB0TazercUEX41GnRv/u sDWTkRF0RwZh8ZsSuKefzrutEMAqoEbQ3xw3t12r4TrjSSmB+FciqTrUo/SHoj8H ODH156gAv8o37+6JAWfT =Bh7+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--