Re: C++ in kernel (was Re: exception in a device driver)

Chip Salzenberg (chip@perlsupport.com)
Mon, 11 Jan 1999 12:56:24 -0500

According to kwrohrer@ce.mediaone.net:
> And lo, Chip Salzenberg saith unto me:
> > According to tytso@mit.edu:
> > > This is why IMHO handing C++ to the average programmer seems roughly
> > > comparable to handing a loaded .45 to a chimpanzee.
> >
> > You seriously expect average programmers to hack Linux? I don't.
>
> It's the average programmers who will be writing the device drivers.

I disagree. How many Linux device drivers will there ever be? Maybe
a thousand or two? Compare that number to the programmer population,
and you'll see that it's not necessary to drop below the top one or
two percentiles to find those who'll write the very best drivers.

> After all, if they were good with hardware and software then Transmeta
> has already hired them [...]

Um, no comment. :-)

> I don't want to give free reign for merely average programmers to throw
> exceptions outside their code. Especially since last I knew C++ still
> didn't force you to declare everything you throw...

There are ways to make sure that such declarations _are_ made for kernel
drivers. I'll go into them if you like.

-- 
Chip Salzenberg      - a.k.a. -      <chip@perlsupport.com>
      "When do you work?"   "Whenever I'm not busy."


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