Can we really think at a new OS design nowadays ?

[Guillaume FORTAINE]

Hello,

Here is the start point of my reflexion :

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l4-hurd/2006-04/msg00053.html

I believe that we can do extremely complex and reliable software with a 
few people, thanks to the powerful formal and design tools available now.

Moreover, I think that this OS has to support three key things to be 
able to survive ( an essential key to have a long term development ) : 
synergy ,transition & usability.

-The first one is the start of any important  project : developers can 
have the possibility to share complex ideas with minimum requirements 
and to integrate them in a coherent environment. ( see 
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/ => 23 years old and even the goals are 
not well defined )

-The second feature provide any user the ability to develop on it with 
existing materials and to have the support of developers of legacy OS. ( 
see www.tunes.org => maybe too innovative and this :  
http://symbolx.org/ddf_news.html ).

-The third one needs that a device driver framework needs to be rapidly 
envisaged. ( again http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/ => no good driver 
kit at this date, the same for linux : 
http://www.kroah.com/log/2006/05/24/, 15 years later ). Who wants to 
have an OS that boots only a black screen with a beep sound ? If we 
follow the Moore law, an OS design of the future would be thought for 
quadruple play ( mobility, audio, video, Internet ) and security of course.


Time is maybe our worst ennemy : more and more technologies are created 
day by day and we need to understand and to be able to use them
And it's maybe our better friend : as the hardware/software becomes mor 
and more complex, the tools to develop them becomes more powerful  too.

The tools developed to understand and create complex systems give us the 
ability to design and implement an OS design secure & reliable.

Here are my guidelines to start :

_
First : Users collaboration :_

http://www.opencroquet.org


_Second - Formal tools :_

http://www.fmeurope.org

Z method :

http://czt.sourceforge.net/

http://www.zuser.org/

B-method :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-Method

http://rodin-b-sharp.sourceforge.net/index.html


_Second - Software design :_

http://planetmde.org/

http://distributed-software.blogspot.com

_
Third - Language Designer's Toolkit :_

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1562

http://hlvm.org/



Abstraction will be the solution,


Best Regards,

         Guillaume FORTAINE