[Info-vax] OS implementation languages

[Bob Gezelter]

On Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 8:38:21 AM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2023-09-06, Chris Townley <ne... at cct-net.co.uk> wrote: 
> >
> > But plenty of youngsters play with Raspberry Pis - they don't even come 
> > with a box! 
> >
> Yes, but what are they doing with them ? 
> 
> Quite a bit of the time it appears to be doing clever things with 
> user-mode applications that already exist. 
> 
> At one end, I can write bare-metal startup code and hence understand 
> how computers work when you have no software layers between you and the 
> hardware. 
> 
> At the other end, I can write business and webserver applications. 
> 
> I can also do the full range of intermediate stuff including writing 
> device drivers, and system-level programming in general. 
> 
> Like Scott, I get the feeling that understanding the system-level 
> stuff isn't as common any more (sadly).
> Simon. 
> 
> -- 
> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP 
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
Simon,

Sadly true. It profoundly unsettling to see the lack of underlying knowledge. Simple foundational knowledge about CPUs, memory, mass storage, networks, operating systems, and other areas is lacking. Often the common thread is ubiquity: Since all of the infrastructure has become commonplace, the everyday need for understanding has become background.

However, in the end, everything in computing must tie back to the fundamentals. No amount of high-level abstraction can remove the realities of the foundational. One cannot take away the foundation by adding levels of abstraction and, in effect, obfuscation.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com