Messages in this thread | | | From | "Bill Kelly" <> | Subject | Java or Forth interpreter in kernel for device drivers - i'm interested | Date | Tue, 4 May 1999 01:31:38 -0700 |
| |
I noticed the following on the Linux wish-list: "Java or Forth interpreter in kernel for device drivers. This lets vendors write binary drivers that will work for Intel, Alpha, and whatever else uses the same bus. An interpreted driver without source code is better than no driver at all."
That's interesting, a cross-platform binary standard for device drivers is a somewhat different reason than why I thought many hardware-types liked to be able to break into Forth interpreters at boot time. I thought the Forths were mostly used as an interactive hardware-debugging aid, or possibly as a interpreters for plug-n-play style startup code on the cards. (Am I way off here? I don't have hardware experience, myself.)
I don't mean to impugn the idea of a cross-platform interpreter for drivers in any way, it sounds really cool. But I can imagine that an existing binary standard like Java might have a better chance of being adopted for something like this, and that interactivity might not be a primary concern. (If anyone wants to counter that Forth really has a chance here, by all means; I think that would be neat. :)
But in any case, I would be interested in providing an in-kernel Forth to serve as more of a hardware-oriented debugging aid, if anyone can confirm that this a) would be useful and desirable, and b) would be willing to suggest features it should have to make it the most cool and useful.
Any thoughts?
Bill Kelly (mailto:billk@cts.com)
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |