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Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

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Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#21

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

loser777 wrote: post #17

How do we delineate "OS that does one thing" from "bare metal program?"

I'd argue that the difference is that an OS doesn't do just one thing, unless the thing is "run arbitrary other programs". (Which is to say, I think calling this an OS is a misnomer, since I don't see anything to suggest that it can load/run anything else)

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#23

Post by spijdar »

tyingq wrote: post #10

"Windows - Absolutely no idea." QEMU works on WSL and WSL2 now, that would be one way.

QEMU works fine on Windows natively, and supports the "Windows Hypervisor Platform" as an accelerator ("-accel whpx" I think), same API that Hyper-V and WSL2 use. Where you might run into problems is the audio/video parts, not sure if QEMU can do audio on win32.

Edit: Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure QEMU comes with an SDL frontend by default, which should wrap at least audio output even on Windows.

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#25

Post by pcthrowaway »

lisper wrote: post #19

This is cool, but I think it's misleading to call it an operating system. It's Tetris that runs without an operating system, which is to say, on bare metal, old school. Writing programs that run on bare metal is a cool and worthwhile thing to do, but calling any such program an "operating system" is confusing. This probably sounds like I'm picking a nit, but I think it matters for the sake of newbies just starting to…

If Apple and Google can release operating systems that can only run software which has been built for those platforms, approved by Apple/Google, and released through official delivery channels, this could be an operating system too, which only allows you to run program which have been pre-approved, possibly only to deliver blocks. Perhaps the keys are shortcuts to launch additional programs which change the wallpaper in various ways.

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#26

Post by tyingq »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #24
tyingq wrote: post #10

"Windows - Absolutely no idea." QEMU works on WSL and WSL2 now, that would be one way.

I'm confused - doesn't qemu work fine on Windows natively?

He had specific command line switches for other environments, so it would allow the Linux example to "just work", other than maybe audio.

I'm sure someone could figure it out for Windows as well.

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#27

Post by wk_end »

lisper wrote: post #19

This is cool, but I think it's misleading to call it an operating system. It's Tetris that runs without an operating system, which is to say, on bare metal, old school. Writing programs that run on bare metal is a cool and worthwhile thing to do, but calling any such program an "operating system" is confusing. This probably sounds like I'm picking a nit, but I think it matters for the sake of newbies just starting to…

Yes, props to the developer for what they've done, but I am perversely disappointed that this isn't actually a complete OS - process scheduler, file system, TCP/IP stack, multiple user support, all the rest - that only runs Tetris.

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#29

Post by spijdar »

lisper wrote: post #19

This is cool, but I think it's misleading to call it an operating system. It's Tetris that runs without an operating system, which is to say, on bare metal, old school. Writing programs that run on bare metal is a cool and worthwhile thing to do, but calling any such program an "operating system" is confusing. This probably sounds like I'm picking a nit, but I think it matters for the sake of newbies just starting to…

I somewhat agree with the sentiment, but I think the line is fuzzy. UNIX, as the stories go, originated as essentially an abstraction layer for a single video game, all written in assembly, and eventually expanded to have process isolation and a shell. So I'm inclined to think that this could be an OS, as it has to provide subroutines and code to drive hardware and provide an environment for the game to run, an "operating system" if you will.

But if you accept that, everything becomes fuzzy. Is the firmware an "operating system" then? The CPU microcode? On systems like the XEROX Alto, the microcode was developed like a sort of OS kernel. I think it's interesting to explore the "lesser meanings" of terms like "operating system" :-)

Re: Tetris-OS: An operating system that only plays Tetris

#30

Post by klyrs »

wk_end wrote: post #27
lisper wrote: post #19

This is cool, but I think it's misleading to call it an operating system. It's Tetris that runs without an operating system, which is to say, on bare metal, old school. Writing programs that run on bare metal is a cool and worthwhile thing to do, but calling any such program an "operating system" is confusing. This probably sounds like I'm picking a nit, but I think it matters for the sake of newbies just starting to…

Yes, props to the developer for what they've done, but I am perversely disappointed that this isn't actually a complete OS - process scheduler, file system, TCP/IP stack, multiple user support, all the rest - that only runs Tetris.

I used a few operating systems that were considered "complete," in their time, without a TCP/IP stack or multiple user support. Come to think of it, I don't think they had process schedulers either
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