Reimplenting Linux Kernel in Python

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 15:32:01 -0700, Maboroshi <nobody at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello
> 
> My question has to do with python and linux - I was interested in
> finding out what it would take to reimplement the Linux Kernel in python
> basically just taking the source code from linux and rewriting it in
> python Would this idea make sense to do - if so what would be the
> benefits of doing this and in what way would this not be a good idea

To put it simply, it does not make sense, in its pure form. Linux is
written in C for a lot of good reasons: portability, need to access
the hardware, and performance comes to mind. Besides that, Linux is
Posix compliant and emulates Unix system calls to a large extend, and
that also makes C a natural choice. To do a similar implementation in
Python would be similar to try to use a knife to sculpt a marble piece
-- it's the wrong tool for the job.

Now, let me re-state your question in a broader sense. Is it possible
to write an OS using a language such as Python? Yes. But the resulting
OS will surely be different from Linux -- by design it would be a
completely different beast. Some parts would still be written in C and
assembler, because it needs to access the hardware, and also for
performance reasons. But an API could be devised to allow higher-level
functions to be written in Python, while calling the low-level
C+assembler stuff. But as I said, it's _so_ completely different from
anything else in use today as to make it pretty much a theorethical or
academic exercise with little practical use. I can't see a project
like that taking off, even if I would love to see it working.

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com