Re: Lua OS!

[Javier Guerra <javier@...>]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM, steve donovan
<steve.j.donovan@gmail.com> wrote:
> assuming write is a message on a remote object, then why not:
>
> proc:write "boo"

this looks _very_ neat.  It's starting to look less like a shot in the
wild and more like a really likeable thing to hack on.

a modest proposal to get it slightly closer to reality.  there has
been both calls to "write the kernel from scratch" and to "assemble a
lua-centric minimalistic linux distro".  I think a very practical
middle ground would be to use something like eCos
(http://ecos.sourceware.org/) for the kernel. it's incredibly portable
to embedded systems, and boasts heavy customizationability (a
prerequisite to get in most embedded controllers).

according to a quick read of the docs, it doesn't use memory
protection, just software isolation of the preemptively scheduled
threads.  that would mesh quite nicely with message-passing concurrent
Lua environments, such as LuaProc, ConcurrentLua, or LuaLanes.

Also, since almost everything in the eCos kernel is optional, we can
get rid of the filesystem and other 'legacy' concepts.  Just a Lua API
to manage the creation of Lua processes (or tasks, or actors...), the
TCP/IP network and some form of persistence (only if you have
persistent storage; if not, just use the same remote API through the
network)


-- 
Javier