Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!DK0RRZK0.BITNET!AB084 From: AB084@DK0RRZK0.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: OS/9 and other operating systems Message-ID: <8712030211.AA03408@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Wed, 2-Dec-87 22:00:21 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8712030211.AA03408 Posted: Wed Dec 2 22:00:21 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Dec-87 08:22:44 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 64 A few weeks ago I sent a question to the net concerning OS/9. As far as I could see there was no response to it at all. (Some- times we seem to miss digests here on BitNet.) I must admit that the way I put the question didn't make it look very serious. I will try again now, explaining why I'd like to initiate a quite general discussion about operating systems for the ST. With the ST and in particular with the Mega, Atari succeeds in losing the toy image (gradually). Quite a few STs are used under sort of professional/commercial conditions. But for such purposes one would like to run a more reliable OS on the ST. TOS/GEMDOS, at least in their present state, seem unacceptable. I'd like to list a couple of points I find important and would ex- pect from a reasonable OS. I invite everyone to comment on it, criticise, support, complete it. And I would appreciate people letting us know which OS's do meet the criteria and which don't. Please let us make use of your experience. 1. A good OS should have very few (favorably no) bugs. It should do what the documentation says, be predictable. No surprises wanted. 2. It should be well documented and function in an intelligible way. It should have a clear concept, e.g. of files, processes, etc. 3. It should be stable. This means it runs for days or even weeks without crashing and it does so even if it is not left alone, if there is somebody working all the time and if this someone makes mistakes. 4. There should be good software available for it or at least become avalilable in the near future. Some kind of compatibility with a "standard" such as UNIX would be nice. It would make porting easy. 5. It should provide (or be integrated with) a modern developing system. Editor, compilers, linker, debugger, make, and so on. All powerful, fast, and easy to use. Compilers should of course generate quick code. 6. Multitasking is a must. 7. Real time capabilities might be useful. Nice but not absolutely neccessary would be: 8. A TOS/GEM emulator. Don't want to lose all the games. And the few excellent programs (like gulam or uniterm). Which candidates do I see? Well, there are OS/9 and RTOS-UH. MINIX is being ported and there are even rumours about UNIX. I've read very positive articles about EUMEL (which I have never used or seen at work) in German magazines. There may be more. Hope we'll know soon. I hope this will be the start of an interesting and useful discussion. Michael Eibl ab084@dk0rrzk0.bitnet Theoretical Physics Institute University of Cologne D-5000 Koeln 41 West Germany