<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 12:34 AM Smith, Barry F. via petsc-dev <<a href="mailto:petsc-dev@mcs.anl.gov">petsc-dev@mcs.anl.gov</a>> wrote:<br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
I think it is totally insane that the entire Linux kernel is implemented in C in 2019. Probably only 5 percent of the source needs to be implemented in a low level language like C and the rest could be written in a higher level language for enormous improvement in maintainability and extensibility. </blockquote><div><br></div><div>I am not sure. I have a sizable code (PyLith) written in a mixture of C and Python for exactly this reason. It is impossible to debug, which counts against maintainabiltiy for me. If your C layer is anything but perfect, you have problems. This would be even harder in a language farther from C than Python. Also, C is pretty extensible. Much more so than most languages. If I thought I would save myself tons of time, I would change. However, anything I have ever tried faltered just when you want it to start working for you.</div><div><br></div><div> Matt</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Similarly it is insane that the GNU portion of Linux/GNU is written in C instead of a higher level language.<br>
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Barry<br>
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And yes Linux is not very extendable. It is just a rewrite of a 40+ year old OS (yes with some improvements and extensions, I'll give you that). <br>
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> On Mar 11, 2019, at 11:14 PM, Zhang, Hong <<a href="mailto:hongzhang@anl.gov" target="_blank">hongzhang@anl.gov</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> Is linux kernel maintainable and extendable? Does anyone want to reimplement linux in Julia?<br>
> <br>
> Hong (Mr.)<br>
> <br>
>> On Mar 11, 2019, at 9:28 PM, Smith, Barry F. via petsc-dev <<a href="mailto:petsc-dev@mcs.anl.gov" target="_blank">petsc-dev@mcs.anl.gov</a>> wrote:<br>
>> <br>
>> <br>
>> PETSc source code is becoming an unmaintainable, unextendable monstrosity. How long until Julia is mature enough that we can (re)implement PETSc in it?<br>
>> <br>
>> Barry<br>
>> <br>
> <br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead.<br>-- Norbert Wiener</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~knepley/" target="_blank">https://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~knepley/</a><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>