Article View: comp.os.mach
Article #954Re: Mach as a Virtual Machine
From: Scott Bennett
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1991 21:06
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1991 21:06
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2853 bytes
In article <1991Apr17.042700.2568@mtxinu.COM> ed@mtxinu.COM (Ed Gould) writes:
>>I am trying to answer this question:
>
>> "Is Mach a virtual machine software?"
>
>> [text deleted --SJB]
>
>Even in this sense, Mach does not present any more of a "virtual
>machine" than does any other operating system. The Mach 3.0
>facilities don't implement any of the OS *interfaces* that we're
>currently used to, but they provide a way to implement those
>interfaces. In that sense, Mach provides a virtual machine. So
>does every other OS, albeit a different one for each OS.
The above comment makes it obvious that an attempt has been
made to make the term "virtual machine" useless by forcing it to
to mean things it was never intended to mean. The term *is*, after
all, virtual *machine*, *not* virtual operating system interface.
A virtual machine is one that looks to a program like a real machine.
Even an operating system is supposed to run correctly inside it.
Terminology in almost any technical field nowadays is getting
to be so voluminous that people new to a field cannot be familiar
with all of it. This results in their reinventing or misusing
terms. Thanks go to Ed Gould here for putting an end to the
nonsense in this case.
>
>--
>Ed Gould No longer formally affiliated with,
>ed@mtxinu.COM and certainly not speaking for, mt Xinu.
>
>"I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady. I'll fight them as an engineer."
Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
Systems Programming
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!bennettReferences:
<1991Apr16.133805.28465@ulowell.ulowell.edu> <1991Apr17.042700.2568@mtxinu.COM>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!bennett From: bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett) Newsgroups: comp.os.mach Subject: Re: Mach as a Virtual Machine Keywords: virtual machine - mach - design - architecture Message-ID: <1991Apr18.210653.15591@mp.cs.niu.edu> Date: 18 Apr 91 21:06:53 GMT References: <1991Apr16.133805.28465@ulowell.ulowell.edu> <1991Apr17.042700.2568@mtxinu.COM> Distribution: na Organization: Northern Illinois University Lines: 45