osimpa compared to C

			C			osimpa
............................................................................
availability/cost	$0-- and up		Hey bro, spare change?

generality		good. Any app, much	total, potentially (no FPU
			systems code		stuff yet, etc.)

runtime performance	excellent		good to unbeatable, i.e. as
						good as you

productivity of an	
adept programmer	good			no track record, but should be 
						comparable

CPU coverage		all desktops, plus	90% (386), potentially all
						register machines

Install range		excellent		good	
			any desktop OS		any 386 with a 32 bit 
						unix-style shell. Potentially 
						any desktop OS/CPU.

learn rate		poor. Starts quirky,	fair to good. Clear names,
			stays quirky.		extremely interactive, 
						proactive help, simple 
						consistant syntax similar
						to the shell 

existing reuseable
or example code		an embarrassment of	a few included tidbits
			riches

install hassle		nightmarish		zero hassle on unix, 
						needs Cygwin or similar on
						WinDoS, i.e. a nightmare

smallness		poor			good

compile/assemble speed	fair to good		pitiful (a stand-alone
						compembler could change that)

customizability 
or extensibility of
compiler/assembler	"just isn't done"	trivial for some things

lustre			maximally spiffy	shabby
			Bell Labs, UNIX		caused a splash on Slashdot
						under "It's funny. Laugh."

internal simplicity	poor			fair


I do not consider "readability" and "maintainability" to be sensible
terms.  "readable code" is an oxymoron, and maintainability is a
combination of the above-listed factors, coding skill and style, and human
project organization.

I believe osimpa is already a better language than C for writing an OS.
You can't write an OS entirely in C, and then all hell breaks loose. C's
great genius is that it is nearly a portable assembler. osimpa gets, it
appears to me, a bit closer to that Holy Grail. osimpa also has massively
less resource dependancies itself, which makes a big difference when
bootstrapping things from non-existance. You need a C compiler to install
Gcc. Probably any C. Not good. This is closer to a re-license than a
bootstrap. osimplay isn't like that.


Rick Hohensee
rickh@capaccess.org