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This is pretty wild. I hadn't realized that there were easy ways to work with EFI in higher-level languages than C. Other languages: Rust: https://medium.com/

This is pretty wild. I hadn't realized that there were easy ways to work with EFI in higher-level languages than C. Other languages: Rust: https://medium.com/@gil0mendes/an-efi-app-a-bit-rusty-82c36b745f49 https://medium.com/@gil0mendes/an-efi-app-a-bit-rusty-82c36b... Wasn't able to find an example for Go, but seems likely it's out there.

blattimwind 8y ago
> Wasn't able to find an example for Go, but seems likely it's out there. NERF/LinuxBoot has a lot of Go components though as I remember it the EFI application is actually the Linux kernel, with the userland (i.e. init) being written in Go.
- vetrom 8y ago
  The kexec paradigm makes this execution vector rather more useful than most people realize. It's also what powers inline kernel crash dumps.
int_19h 8y ago
C# is higher-level in aggregate, but if you look at individual features, it lets you go as low as C in most respects - raw pointers with arithmetic, unions, stack allocations, you name it. It seems that this EFI project uses it at that level, and higher-level features that would require e.g. GC aren't supported.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  This is one of the benefits of C# that makes it approachable to beginners.
  - ygra 8y ago
    I wouldn't say pointers and unsafe code are features that makes it approachable to beginners.
amluto 8y ago
Go has segmented stacks, which could make it awkward to use in a bare-metal environment like this. I’m sure it’s possible, but it might be quite tedious to get working.
- mappu 8y ago
  Go previously used segmented stacks, but stopped in the 1.4 release (2014)
  - amluto 8y ago
    How do they handle growing tons of stacks now?
    - mappu 8y ago
      Goroutine stacks start out small (2KB), are heap-allocated and copyable (unlike most Go memory).
qalmakka 8y ago
C# with boatloads of `unsafe` is by no means an higher level language; it's pretty much the same level of C/C++ or Rust. You're just using a more sophisticated complier and a stricter language, which can be great if used correctly, but if you dereference a null pointer, it's still going to crash and burn; this also applies to unsafe Rust.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Following the footsteps of system languages like PL/S or Mesa/Cedar, just to cite two quite old examples. The good part is that the unsafe bits can be easily constrained, instead of hidding away in every single line of code.

blattimwind 8y ago

> Wasn't able to find an example for Go, but seems likely it's out there. NERF/LinuxBoot has a lot of Go components though as I remember it the EFI application is actually the Linux kernel, with the userland (i.e. init) being written in Go.

vetrom 8y ago
The kexec paradigm makes this execution vector rather more useful than most people realize. It's also what powers inline kernel crash dumps.

int_19h 8y ago

C# is higher-level in aggregate, but if you look at individual features, it lets you go as low as C in most respects - raw pointers with arithmetic, unions, stack allocations, you name it. It seems that this EFI project uses it at that level, and higher-level features that would require e.g. GC aren't supported.

cptskippy 8y ago
This is one of the benefits of C# that makes it approachable to beginners.
- ygra 8y ago
  I wouldn't say pointers and unsafe code are features that makes it approachable to beginners.

amluto 8y ago

Go has segmented stacks, which could make it awkward to use in a bare-metal environment like this. I’m sure it’s possible, but it might be quite tedious to get working.

mappu 8y ago
Go previously used segmented stacks, but stopped in the 1.4 release (2014)
- amluto 8y ago
  How do they handle growing tons of stacks now?
  - mappu 8y ago
    Goroutine stacks start out small (2KB), are heap-allocated and copyable (unlike most Go memory).

qalmakka 8y ago

C# with boatloads of `unsafe` is by no means an higher level language; it's pretty much the same level of C/C++ or Rust. You're just using a more sophisticated complier and a stricter language, which can be great if used correctly, but if you dereference a null pointer, it's still going to crash and burn; this also applies to unsafe Rust.

pjmlp 8y ago
Following the footsteps of system languages like PL/S or Mesa/Cedar, just to cite two quite old examples. The good part is that the unsafe bits can be easily constrained, instead of hidding away in every single line of code.