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The same way you ask me to do a "minimal amount of research", you should do the same to answer the question about what is a systems programming language. Claim
by jfkebwjsbx 7y ago
The same way you ask me to do a "minimal amount of research", you should do the same to answer the question about what is a systems programming language.
Claiming "within ~3x of C++" answers your question. For the problems I work in (some of which you mention) even a 5% is a major deal. 300%? That’s just crazy talk and a non-starter.
That’s what performance means and why most language benchmarks are usually useless: people writing them have no clue of what are the requirements of many fields.
- patrec 7y agoI tend to do my homework – system programming language is not some narrowly defined concept with an universally agreed on definition. People frequently put Go and Swift in that category (see the wikipedia). Are you suggesting Swift is systems programming when Ocaml isn't? If you run docker on Windows or macOS you are running a tcp/ip stack in ocaml (unless something has recently changed). I assume you mean 105% and 300%? And what are the 105% that are a major deal – the runtime relative to what the hardware could theoretically do? Or 105% relative to what you can get out of C++?
- pjmlp 7y agoParts of the Xen Hypervisor, Docker TPC/IP stack integration with the host OS, and the MirageOS are written in OCaml, it looks pretty much systems programming to me. Likewise, there is an endless amount of compilers in research written in OCaml. Last time I checked, anything related to compiler toolchains used to be considered systems programming.