Re: Kernel Development & Objective-C

From: Ben Crowhurst
Date: Fri Nov 30 2007 - 06:18:38 EST


Loïc Grenié wrote:
2007/11/29, Ben Crowhurst <Ben.Crowhurst@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
Has Objective-C ever been considered for kernel development?

regards,
BPC

No, it has not. Any language that looks remotely like an OO language
has not ever been considered for (Linux) kernel development and for
most, if not all, other operating systems kernels.

Various problems occur in an object oriented language. One of them
is garbage collection: it provokes asynchronous delays and, during
an interrupt or a system call for a real time task, the kernel cannot
wait.
Objective C 1.0 does not force nor have garbage collection.

Another is memory overhead: all the magic that OO languages
provide take space in memory and Linux kernel is used in embedded
systems with very tight memory requirements.
But are embedded systems not rapidly moving on. Turning to stare at the ADSL X6 modem with MB's of ram.
Lots of people will think of better reasons why ObjC is not used...

Loïc Grenié


Which I'm looking forward to hear :)

Thank you for your appropriate response.

--

Regards
BPC


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