[Info-vax] Variable declarations, was: Re: improving EDT

[David Froble]

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?=  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 11/29/2016 11:32 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>> He means an OS designed for the widest possible number of applications for
>>> the widest possible number of users.
>>>
>>> The consequence of that design is that it becomes impossible to actually
>>> fix design bugs but only issue patches to deal with specific consequences
>>> of them.  The end result of this is a constant flow of patches and an
>>> unstable platform.
>> I don't see general purpose platforms like Unix, VMS, Linux, Windows etc.
>> as being unstable.
> 
> Have you ever run any of them?  Windows is the worst, but many of the Linux
> distributions are just as bad.  Every week the OS is slightly different.
> You can't count on the base platform remaining the same.
> 
>>> If a system is designed for a specific application, building actual security
>>> into it becomes much easier.
>> True.
>>
>> But didn't such dedicated OS's become obsolete many decades ago?
> 
> No, what happened was people decided security and stability weren't worth the
> cost at that point.  Commodity systems are just so incredibly cheap, it is
> very seductive.
> --scott

One thing to keep in mind, 30 years ago computers were used only for important 
work, and they were expected to be accurate.  Those tasks still exist, but have 
been obscured by the tremendous explosion of computer usage.  Some important, 
and some not so important.  Facebook, google, and such may do a decent (or less) 
job, but aren't what I'd call "important".