Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Wed 5th Sep 2001 21:05 UTC
Today we are hosting an interview with Ville Turjanmaa, the creator of the Menuet Operating System. Menuet is a new, 32-bit OS, it fits to a single floppy (along with 10 or so more applications that come as standard with the OS). It features protection for the memory and code, it has a GUI running at 16,7 million colors, sound at 44.1 khz stereo, easy of use and easy low level API. And the most important and notable feature? The whole OS was written in 100%, pure 32-bit x86 assembly code.
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Hasn't anyone here bothered to see the code? I for one have, though I haven't really analysed it in depth yet. Still, I haven't notice any code or data protection, despite statements to the contrary in the article. It seems that any process runs at priviledge level 0, and effectively can do whatever it wants -- including hanging or crashing entire system. Further, it seems that memory available to the process is limited to 1Mb, and no more than 20-something processes can run simultaneously. Further still, it isn't pure 32-bit code. There is 16-bit startup code, and unlike Linux, it isn't jettisoned after starup. The code itself is horribly un-structured, and seems to be a nightmare to maintain and extend. And putting all the source of the kernel in 200+ KB file is hardly a good idea. Anyway, writing an entire OS in assembler is pretty stupid idea. HLL were developed specifically to combat emerging complexities of software through the use of decomposition, i.e. dividing programs into smaller parts with well-defined and clean interfaces between them, so that at any given time developer can concentrate on just one of those parts.