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From: Andy Walker <anw@cuboid.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Algol 68 / Genie - opinions on local procedures?
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:42:01 +0100
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On 21/08/2025 03:59, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 23:58:58 +0100, Andy Walker wrote:
>> On 20/08/2025 01:43, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>> If you were to run an old OS on new hardware, that would need
>>> drivers for that new hardware, too.
>> Yes, but what is so special about a modern disc drive, monitor,
>> keyboard, mouse, ... that it needs "the vast majority" of 40M lines
>> more than its equivalent for a PDP-11?
> Keyboard and mouse -- USB. [...]

	You've given us a list of 20-odd features of modern systems
that have been developed since 7th Edition Unix, and could no doubt
think of another 20.  What you didn't attempt was to explain why all
these nice things need to occupy 40M lines of code.  That's, give or
take, 600k pages of code, call it 2000 books.  That's, on your figures,
just the kernel source;  specifications [assuming there are such!] and
documentation no doubt double that, and it's already more than normal
people can read and understand.  There is similar bloat is the commands
and in the manual entries.  It's out of control, witness the updates
that come in every few days.  It's fatally easy to say of "sh" or "cc"
or "firefox" or ... "Wouldn't it be nice if it did X?", and fatally
hard to say "It shouldn't really be doing X.", as there's always the
possibility of someone somewhere who might perhaps be using it.

	See also Janis's nearby article.

-- 
Andy Walker, Nottingham.
    Andy's music pages: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music
    Composer of the day: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music/Composers/Kinross