3 ms·

This little note seems quite narrow minded. Who says communication has to go over the web? When I send a message or some other data to someone, like when I se

This little note seems quite narrow minded. Who says communication has to go over the web? When I send a message or some other data to someone, like when I send something via FedEx, I'd like to know how long it's going to take to arrive. If it can be instantaneous, all the better. When the recipient chooses to read it is their business. Real-time communications systems are quite valuable, in my opinion. Financial markets now rely on them. But what I'd really like to see are more real-time operating systems for general use, by consumers. A real-time kernel makes computing very predictable. The time taken to complete a task can be accurately estimated before it is undertaken. Sometimes this is very useful. Sometimes the user might only want to do one or more single things at a time. Maybe there's a task I perform everyday and I want to be sure it will always take the same amount of time, each and every day. In the real world, outside of computers, everyone knows "multitasking" is overrated. If you want results, it's better to be able to _focus_. Maybe we might say the same for computers, in some situations.

icebraining 14y ago
Who says communication has to go over the web? I don't know, who? When I send a message or some other data to someone, like when I send something via FedEx, I'd like to know how long it's going to take to arrive. If it can be instantaneous, all the better. Why? Why do you care? As long as it arrives before the recipient can actually handle it, isn't it irrelevant? Real-time communications systems are quite valuable, in my opinion. Financial markets now rely on them. With disastrous consequences, some would claim. Re:RTOS. The only thing it buys you is submillisecond scheduling, vs standard Linux millisecond scheduling. It doesn't mean the system is single-task, nor does it protect the task from being delayed by doing IO, which almost all tasks do (and if they connect to the internet, you can forget any kind of hard or soft realtime guarantees). In the real world, outside of computers, everyone knows "multitasking" is overrated. If you want results, it's better to be able to _focus_. For the most part, multitasking is not the problem. Application design and dependency on external systems is much more important. What's the point of having a single task running, if it's waiting e.g. for the DNS to resolve?

icebraining 14y ago

Who says communication has to go over the web? I don't know, who? When I send a message or some other data to someone, like when I send something via FedEx, I'd like to know how long it's going to take to arrive. If it can be instantaneous, all the better. Why? Why do you care? As long as it arrives before the recipient can actually handle it, isn't it irrelevant? Real-time communications systems are quite valuable, in my opinion. Financial markets now rely on them. With disastrous consequences, some would claim. Re:RTOS. The only thing it buys you is submillisecond scheduling, vs standard Linux millisecond scheduling. It doesn't mean the system is single-task, nor does it protect the task from being delayed by doing IO, which almost all tasks do (and if they connect to the internet, you can forget any kind of hard or soft realtime guarantees). In the real world, outside of computers, everyone knows "multitasking" is overrated. If you want results, it's better to be able to _focus_. For the most part, multitasking is not the problem. Application design and dependency on external systems is much more important. What's the point of having a single task running, if it's waiting e.g. for the DNS to resolve?