Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: ReadKey like Function in C
Message-ID: <10750@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 16 Aug 89 04:40:54 GMT
References: <148@trigon.UUCP> <207600029@s.cs.uiuc.edu> <941@lakesys.UUCP> <10734@smoke.BRL.MIL> <5692@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 23

In article <5692@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Fork() is just plain inefficient unless you have virtual memory support,
>so few small-system or real-time operating systems use it or even support it.

Funny how we didn't think it was a big problem on PDP-11 UNIX.  The
"small systems" you mention today have more inherent power than those
PDP-11s; the problem seems to be that convenient means of exploiting
the power are not being provided.

Real-time has nothing to do with it.

>> >While I'm here, what's the sentiment among C standards folks for some sort
>> >of standard co-routine arrangement?
>> It cannot be mandated across all implementations.
>Well, the flip response to this is: "Maybe, but then neither can fork().",
>and I'm reasonably sure you'll use that in your code.

Only if the application is deliberately constrained to POSIX implementations.
I don't use fork() gratuitously.

>It seems to me that there is a need for something between X3J11 and POSIX.

Feel free.