So how did they do it in 880K? - Page 2

Thorham · 08-03-2012, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

But yes AmigaDOS 1.3 was very impressive for 1985-1987.

Not to me, I only see tremendous room for improvement on the same specs.

freqmax · 08-03-2012, 09:35 PM

What makes a good OS is a language that keep code tight and still allow you to express your computations without hinderence. The programmer has to some vision as to what is needed, and what should be left out. And the courage to think through the system as a whole both for present needs, and future possibilities.

Selecting a tool that is "easy to work with" with no thought on code produced from it. Nor thinking through "do I need this?" or "what is the best way to do this?".. "are ALL possibilities covered?" is a recipe for bloat and "mystery errors and magical fixes".

I think C is neat combined with assembler for those really tight sections. Then it's a question of deciding the bare minimum while still have a framework for stable and tight expansion. So your OS doesn't expect all storage devices to be of the floppy type or can't handle more than X bytes of RAM etc. Or gets horrible slow from expansion due to bad data structure design and evaluation.

**Matt_H** · 08-03-2012, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by commodorejohn

It's simple: you just have to not be a lazy ass, know what you're doing, and never settle for "eh, whatever, we'll just up the requirements another 2x."

Unfortunately, nobody does that anymore.

This should be drilled into computer science students every single day of their academic careers.

desiv · 08-03-2012, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorham

Not to me, I only see tremendous room for improvement on the same specs.

That's kind of sad...
I was very impressed, but instead of just "seeing room for improvement," I saw potential based on what I'd already seen...

desiv

Zac67 · 08-04-2012, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt_H

This should be drilled into computer science students every single day of their academic careers.

Actually, the problem isn't the developers but the marketing people. With the developers putting up too little resistance.

Zac67 · 08-04-2012, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorham

Not to me, I only see tremendous room for improvement on the same specs.

Possibly - for getting the job done the same way at that point in time. But if you keep a modular, open system in mind as a platform for constant evolution, to my mind it's been a pretty nifty feat.