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World: r3wp

[Syllable] The free desktop and server operating system family

Kaj
31-Aug-2005
[51]
For us the only way is up. Every improvement is a positive thing, 
and we're free to design a modern system
Pekr
31-Aug-2005
[52]
yes, but is it for fun? Or what is your intention? Let's say in a 
few years you reach some 1.0 state and what then? For whom is the 
system targeted?
Kaj
31-Aug-2005
[53x4]
The BeOS efforts are fractured, but Haiku seems to be doing quite 
well. Nevertheless, they're far behind Syllable. They can test parts 
on BeOS, but their own system is only running at a very basic level. 
They do have interesting pieces of code, and quite a bit of it at 
that. They use a BSD license,  so any code we want, we can integrate 
into Syllable. :-) Soon we will release a port of the OpenBFS file 
system for Syllable
Amiga has long been fractured, too. There's Amiga Inc., there's MorphOS 
and there's AROS. Recently I read that their ports of the GNU toolchain 
and other Unix tools are all different, for example, and can't be 
integrated anymore. I like AROS, but it's clear that Syllable is 
much more modern. We have all the things Amiga and Be users always 
wanted: memory protection, virtual memory, hardware abstraction layer, 
driver architecture, multi-user. We're also far ahead of AROS because 
we can port POSIX software and Linux drivers much more easily. Our 
development environment has been selfhosting for ages, we have lots 
of drivers, USB, etcetera.
Although Syllable is fun, a big reason for its founding was that 
a stated goal of AtheOS was that it was a hobby project, while we 
mean business - albeit in the long run :-)
Syllable is clearly focussed at the desktop, and we want a system 
that is as friendly as possible for regular users, while still being 
very powerful for people who know what they're doing, and offering 
a smooth learning curve between those two states. Pretty much the 
Amiga philosophy. And we have no intention of resting on our laurels 
once we call it 1.0 :-)
Pekr
31-Aug-2005
[57]
:-) thanks ... and what about Syllable and scripting in general?
Kaj
31-Aug-2005
[58]
Ahum; that's my area and it's kind of a struggle. I like high-level 
languages, but when I joined Syllable I had already established that 
there were better things than Python. I had ported Ruby to AtheOS 
and that's what we're using now in my build system and in the installer
Pekr
31-Aug-2005
[59]
will there be API to "plug" other languages? :-)
Kaj
31-Aug-2005
[60x2]
Ruby is very powerful, but not as elegant and agile as some others. 
We can use it well in the periphery, but we don't really want to 
include it in the system. I ported R# to Syllable, but it stalled, 
so I had to look further. Then Io came along and I ported that. It's 
great, but I still want to swap it for REBOL. That's hard, but I'm 
going to try porting Orca next
Bindings to the native Syllable API are a big problem, as with other 
systems. One of my requirements for a high-level language is that 
it makes bindings as easy as possible, and supports multithreading 
very well. I looked into many things, like .Net, but found that this 
is not the case for most languages, so I'm more focussed on getting 
one good language than a general bindings framework now
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[62x3]
If you're interested in the video driver framework, we're now having 
an excellent discussion on the mailing list about how to integrate 
OpenGL:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=syllable-developer
The driver framework is going to be revamped with better use of the 
video card: backbuffering and integrated 2D drawing functions. The 
current discussion will also lead to deep integration of 3D. Both 
software rendering and hardware rendering are being worked on. This 
takes the kind of fundamental changes throughout the system that 
take many years on for example Linux, because no project has control 
over all the parts that need to be changed to coordinate everything 
in the best way possible
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[65]
Perhaps you can make an avi of your talk ( ? in English ) on Sept 
11 ?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[66x2]
That would be nice, but it will be in Dutch
Last time it was filmed, but I don't know if the movies were processed. 
We did get a number of still pictures. I linked to them in my posts 
on our forum, if you're interested
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[68]
What can u do with the live CD?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[69]
Similar things as other live CDs: Linux, BSD, AROS
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[70]
BartPE ?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[71]
Look around, maybe even do some work, although the live CD is not 
as stable as an installation
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[72x2]
ok.
Able to read ntfs partitions ?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[74x2]
I don't know BartPE, but it's obviously inspired by the Linux live 
CDs
No, we don't have an NTFS driver yet
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[76x2]
BartPE is a Bart's ... ( some dutch name ) version of MS Personal 
Environment.
I use it to boot up with and check PCs with XP for viruses and spyware.
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[78x2]
How can i install it without a cd-burner?
And: did Carl say anything further about porting rebol there? MAybe 
he can make a short test-case for that select-stuff?
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[80]
buy the premium cd for $10.
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[81]
How can i install syllable *now* without a cd-burner?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[82]
Yup
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[83]
Got a cd reader Volker ?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[84]
Learning magic probably takes longer
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[85]
reader is here.
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[86]
I think there are such things as virtual cds ...
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[87]
However, you can run it emulated. But now you're probably going to 
say that it is too big to download :-)
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[88]
so, maybe you can "burn" the iso image to a virtual cd.
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[89]
No, that was the reason half a year ago.. :)
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[90]
AmigaOS came on 2 disks ?
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[91]
OK, then run it in QEmu or VMWare or VirtualPC or even Bochs
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[92x2]
2 disks + rom. 3 1/2 disks.
No way to put the install on some partition and install from there? 
(i have a partition, really!)
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[94]
I copied my AmigaOS disks to 5.25 disks.
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[95]
I didn't here back yet about select(). Nobody seems to have anything 
particular to say about it, because we never had problems with it 
:-)
Volker
3-Sep-2005
[96]
btw how about xen-support? (i only know the buzzword)
Graham
3-Sep-2005
[97]
How about porting JForth to Syllable ?  http://home.tampabay.rr.com/jforth/
Kaj
3-Sep-2005
[98x3]
Yes, you can install on an extra partition. Same way as you could 
install in an emulator: you need to download the base Syllable package 
instead of the CD
Just follow the instructions on our download page
Yes, Xen would awesome. Our kernel would have to be modified to support 
it. Nobody has talked about it yet, but some day someone will do 
it