[Coco] [CoCo] NitrOS-9 on real CoCo (Was DriveWire 4)

William Astle lost at l-w.ca
Fri Jan 5 17:58:29 EST 2018


On 2018-01-05 03:45 PM, James Ross wrote:
> But, a re-design from scratch using just the top-level documented architectural API (which OS-9 is really a paired down subset of a UNIX OS anyway) and commands would be necessary.

(Potential flamebait incoming.)

People keep saying that OS9 is a paired down subset of Unix. I 
understand why, too. Superficially, they are very similar.

However, OS9 isn't actually a subset of Unix in any real sense. There 
are some very significant variances between the unix behaviour and the 
OS9 behaviour when you get into details. (fork/exec vs chain, record 
locking in RBF, the exec/data directories, etc.)

Also, the whole way modules/executables work is a substantial departure 
from the unix way. Indeed, this is the difference that will likely 
confuse almost everyone not familiar with the OS9 way because there are 
some subtleties to the whole thing.

I should be clear that I'm not dissing OS9. Only pointing out that OS9 
is *not* a subset of Unix. It only looks like it is from a superficial 
examination. It may have been inspired by Unix, but it isn't a subset.


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