Re: introspection in SML

Jon Harrop <usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> Stephen J. Bevan wrote:
>> So let's imagine a world where Visual Studio can compile the Linux
>> kernel.  Now which features of Visual Studio would I benefit from?
>
> For example, a GUI debugger that handles threaded programs.

Hm, so now we are in an even more interesting world where we have a
GUI debugger embedded in the kernel.  I'm curious how that will work
on the hardware I develop for which has no graphics card; there is a
serial line, ethernet or maybe USB.


>> Or a simpler test, which features of Visual Studio would help me
>> writing a IMAP server or an IKE daemon?
>
> Intellisense to explore .NET's libraries.

If I was writing a GUI based program for Windows Intellisense may be
great.  But what possible .NET libraries would I want to use in
writing an IMAP server or IKE daemon on a Linux box?  The only thing I
want from the OS in writing these programs is the fastest possible way
to read/write data from a TCP/UDP socket (or equivalent abstraction) a
way to wait for multiple events and some kind of process abstraction
(not threads but they'll do in a pinch) to avoid a process blocking on
expensive computation such as Diffie-Hellman.  Everything else is
coded from scratch.  Thus I don't need a tool to explore libraries
that are completely irrelevant.


>> ...  If I were to try
>> I'd start with the guess that the majority of Windows programs are
>> written in C or C++
>
> C#, Visual BASIC and maybe managed C++.

Mine was a guess based on looking at a random selection of executables
a newly installed XP box.  That obviously ignores third-party
applications but since I don't use Windows (except to use IE for
testing purposes) I don't have any third-party applications.  How did
you arrive at your list?


> Sure. Linux, BSD, Sourceforge and Freshmeat reflect only a tiny minority
of
> the world's applications though.
[snip]
> That is clearly wildly unrepresentative of the world's applications.

Maybe, may be not.  You use the term "majority of practical
applications" but you've not suggested any way of measuring or even
estimating its composition -- though based on the above it implicitly
excludes any program I use on a daily basis and at least 1/2 of the
running HTTP servers in the world.