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I'm glad that systems languages are getting a little more love these days. However, I'm a little saddened to see that no one seems to want to write a language t

I'm glad that systems languages are getting a little more love these days. However, I'm a little saddened to see that no one seems to want to write a language that can also be used at the write-a-kernel level. Both Rust and GoLang have expressly made this a non-goal[1][2]. [1] https://github.com/graydon/rust/wiki/Project-FAQ https://github.com/graydon/rust/wiki/Project-FAQ [2] http://groups.google.com/group/golang-dev/browse_thread/thread/72c5c5c355cf1262/0e473006b386a185 http://groups.google.com/group/golang-dev/browse_thread/thre...

doublec 16y ago
I consider ATS [1] a systems language and it can be used at the write-a-kernel level. It can be used without a garbage collector using linear types to ensure memory is deallocated. One of the contributed examples is some kernel development [2]. [1] http://www.ats-lang.org/ http://www.ats-lang.org/ [2] http://ats-lang.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ats-lang/trunk/contrib/linux/ http://ats-lang.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ats-lang/trunk/co...
Kototama 16y ago
There is the BitC language: http://www.bitc-lang.org/ http://www.bitc-lang.org/ Sadly they dropped the Lisp syntax.
Queue29 16y ago
No love for the D programming language? There is a WIP (although not much activity since 2010?) kernel being written in D[1]. [1] https://github.com/xomboverlord/xomb https://github.com/xomboverlord/xomb
- portmanteaufu 16y ago
  Y'know, it's funny. For no good reason I've failed to give D any consideration. I guess I've had it in my head that it wasn't as small or speedy as C/C++, but I'm pretty sure that's unfounded prejudice talking. I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!
gnuvince 16y ago
Maybe Clay (http://tachyon.in/clay/ http://tachyon.in/clay/) would interest you then? It does not explicitly says that it can be used for kernel development, but from the feature set it seems like it could.
- portmanteaufu 16y ago
  Interesting! I like the light feel of the syntax and the fact that it uses LLVM. Thanks for sharing!
pcwalton 16y ago
I think you could write a kernel in Rust (though you'd need to add unsafe pointers, direct calls, and possibly other stuff to the language), it's just not a goal of the project. There's no reason why I wouldn't accept patches to the language that would help in that effort as long as they didn't wildly conflict with the main goals of the project.
- portmanteaufu 16y ago
  +1, Thanks for making that distinction.
catamorphism 16y ago
The Habit language, being developed at Portland State (by my colleagues -- I'm a grad student there) falls into the category you're looking for, though the implementation is still under development: http://hasp.cs.pdx.edu/habit-report-Nov2010.pdf http://hasp.cs.pdx.edu/habit-report-Nov2010.pdf (sorry, no non-PDF documentation) There was an LtU thread as well: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4205 http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4205

doublec 16y ago

I consider ATS [1] a systems language and it can be used at the write-a-kernel level. It can be used without a garbage collector using linear types to ensure memory is deallocated. One of the contributed examples is some kernel development [2]. [1] http://www.ats-lang.org/ http://www.ats-lang.org/ [2] http://ats-lang.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ats-lang/trunk/contrib/linux/ http://ats-lang.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ats-lang/trunk/co...

Kototama 16y ago

There is the BitC language: http://www.bitc-lang.org/ http://www.bitc-lang.org/ Sadly they dropped the Lisp syntax.

Queue29 16y ago

No love for the D programming language? There is a WIP (although not much activity since 2010?) kernel being written in D[1]. [1] https://github.com/xomboverlord/xomb https://github.com/xomboverlord/xomb

portmanteaufu 16y ago
Y'know, it's funny. For no good reason I've failed to give D any consideration. I guess I've had it in my head that it wasn't as small or speedy as C/C++, but I'm pretty sure that's unfounded prejudice talking. I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!

gnuvince 16y ago

Maybe Clay (http://tachyon.in/clay/ http://tachyon.in/clay/) would interest you then? It does not explicitly says that it can be used for kernel development, but from the feature set it seems like it could.

portmanteaufu 16y ago
Interesting! I like the light feel of the syntax and the fact that it uses LLVM. Thanks for sharing!

pcwalton 16y ago

I think you could write a kernel in Rust (though you'd need to add unsafe pointers, direct calls, and possibly other stuff to the language), it's just not a goal of the project. There's no reason why I wouldn't accept patches to the language that would help in that effort as long as they didn't wildly conflict with the main goals of the project.

portmanteaufu 16y ago
+1, Thanks for making that distinction.

catamorphism 16y ago

The Habit language, being developed at Portland State (by my colleagues -- I'm a grad student there) falls into the category you're looking for, though the implementation is still under development: http://hasp.cs.pdx.edu/habit-report-Nov2010.pdf http://hasp.cs.pdx.edu/habit-report-Nov2010.pdf (sorry, no non-PDF documentation) There was an LtU thread as well: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4205 http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4205