4 ms·

As someone who has dabbled in OS development over the years, you'd be a fool to use anything other than C (I suppose you could use a restricted subset of C++ if

by eddieh 9y ago

As someone who has dabbled in OS development over the years, you'd be a fool to use anything other than C (I suppose you could use a restricted subset of C++ if you really don't want to write anything but a toy OS) or assembly if you have something to prove.

faitswulff 9y ago
What about Rust disqualifies it? Let's say besides ecosystem immaturity (lack of libraries). As a non-systems programmer, I'm curious.
- throwaway78234 9y ago
  You just provided at least two good reasons. Add the ABI instability as a third and rust has struck out.
- steveklabnik 9y ago
  One drawback about Rust OSes right now is that they must use nightly Rust, and therefore, don't gain our stability guarantees. This is another form of immaturity. I still wish they would have done it anyway, but oh well :) On a technical level, there's nothing stopping you: we already have one serious project (Redox) and many, many hobby projects that exist.
- stusmall 9y ago
  They do have some rust showing up in their repos. It looks like its mostly bindings needed to run rust on the OS. I don't know what their long term goals with it are. I'm guessing they want it for writing high performance user space daemons or whatever the fuchsia equivalent is. https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&type=&language=rust https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&type=&la...
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
  Not OP but the reason I dislike Rust for OS/kernel development is that it's just too damn complicated. Kernels should be written in more conservative languages.
  - s2g 9y ago
    C just pushes the complexity onto the programmer without help.
    - happyguy43 9y ago
      Random subjective opinion presented as objective truth!
      - s2g 9y ago
        because > Not OP but the reason I dislike Rust for OS/kernel development is that it's just too damn complicated isn't? I'm also not sure why stating my opinion is a problem. If you can't handle someone not bother to pussyfoot around and preface any statement with an "IMO" disclaimer, that seems like your problem.
        happyguy43 9y ago
        Dude lighten up it was a joke :)
        s2g 9y ago
        oh alright then.
- eddieh 9y ago
  I haven't personally looked into the Rust based OS (I know it exists), but I can guarantee that they're using inline assembly, fighting with language features, working around limitations, and forgoing safety. I'd be shocked if that isn't the case. I'm not saying that you can't build an OS in Rust or other languages, just that OS development is complicated enough without having to fight your language.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

by eddieh 9y ago

faitswulff 9y ago

What about Rust disqualifies it? Let's say besides ecosystem immaturity (lack of libraries). As a non-systems programmer, I'm curious.

throwaway78234 9y ago
You just provided at least two good reasons. Add the ABI instability as a third and rust has struck out.
steveklabnik 9y ago
One drawback about Rust OSes right now is that they must use nightly Rust, and therefore, don't gain our stability guarantees. This is another form of immaturity. I still wish they would have done it anyway, but oh well :) On a technical level, there's nothing stopping you: we already have one serious project (Redox) and many, many hobby projects that exist.
stusmall 9y ago
They do have some rust showing up in their repos. It looks like its mostly bindings needed to run rust on the OS. I don't know what their long term goals with it are. I'm guessing they want it for writing high performance user space daemons or whatever the fuchsia equivalent is. https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&type=&language=rust https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&type=&la...
Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
Not OP but the reason I dislike Rust for OS/kernel development is that it's just too damn complicated. Kernels should be written in more conservative languages.
- s2g 9y ago
  C just pushes the complexity onto the programmer without help.
  - happyguy43 9y ago
    Random subjective opinion presented as objective truth!
    - s2g 9y ago
      because > Not OP but the reason I dislike Rust for OS/kernel development is that it's just too damn complicated isn't? I'm also not sure why stating my opinion is a problem. If you can't handle someone not bother to pussyfoot around and preface any statement with an "IMO" disclaimer, that seems like your problem.
      - happyguy43 9y ago
        Dude lighten up it was a joke :)
        s2g 9y ago
        oh alright then.
eddieh 9y ago
I haven't personally looked into the Rust based OS (I know it exists), but I can guarantee that they're using inline assembly, fighting with language features, working around limitations, and forgoing safety. I'd be shocked if that isn't the case. I'm not saying that you can't build an OS in Rust or other languages, just that OS development is complicated enough without having to fight your language.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]