Re: [tlug] Peeling onions.

[Uva Coder <uva.coder@example.com>]

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 01:48:55 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull
<stephen@example.com> wrote:

> Plan 9 has a Lisp compiler?

Plan 9 doesn't come with a Lisp compiler, but there might be one
available. I know there are 3rd party implementations of Scheme,
Moscow ML, Haskel, OCaml, Python, and Perl, so programmers aren't
totally lost.

> is in the cache.  Technically, "one protocol communicates all" is a
> _very_ hard problem.

Perhaps it is made easier by use and control of namespaces. The
current situation with Plan 9 folks are contemplating the design for
handling a global namespace (with security built-in). We are now
entering the world of research. No answers quite yet, but a lot of
ideas.

Some smart folks are saying that there isn't a need for a global
namespace because we don't have a need for one yet. I think a new way
to access global data is close at hand, but I won't get into
conspiracy theories.
 
> Note that for most users, pay-per-view seems to be acceptable.  Sure,
> they're willing to pay money to shady engineers to circumvent the BS
> encryptions, but making phone calls to the gi-in to get the laws
> fixed, no.  Socially, it's not obvious that Plan 9-style sharing is
> _universally_ desirable.  There will be a big role for an OS that
> supports Internet Explorer-style browsing for but not a truly
> networked data environment a long time to come, maybe forever.

Along those lines, we just need a distributed working environment that
allows access from anywhere so that you can manipulate your data
anyway you like? That might be 10-15 years down the line; dunno.

In the interim, we'll probably get the ability to export operating
systems and their environments as a container per se, then move our
environment around where we need it.
This is what Xen allows us to do. After that we'd probably get over
the idea of multiple environments and settle for just one that does it
all. Well perhaps the younger generation will move to it, older folks
like us probably won't. ;-)

-uva