Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#1

Post by tsax » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 3:04 PM UTC

Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS
urbit.org

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#2

Post by nutate » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 4:54 PM UTC

I really like this. I hope some younger people with more time on their hands push this farther.

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#3

Post by tomrod » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:11 PM UTC

nutate wrote: post #2

I really like this. I hope some younger people with more time on their hands push this farther.

I'm not sure I follow what this is. Where would I use Nock and Hoon?

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#4

Post by theonewolf » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

I'm pretty sure this is a giant joke ? Or nothing is implemented yet (and still, kind of jokish especially in description)?

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#5

Post by urbit » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:26 PM UTC

A demo video: http://vimeo.com/75312418

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#6

Post by jsd1982 » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:29 PM UTC

I was with you til you introduced the Hoon syntax. Why ruin a great concept with a shit language? WHAT IS WRONG WITH LANGUAGE DESIGNERS?! Just come up with a sane language with a sane syntax on a great platform. This is apparently asking a lot. It's not fucking rocket science.

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#7

Post by yebyen » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:31 PM UTC

theonewolf wrote: post #4

I'm pretty sure this is a giant joke ? Or nothing is implemented yet (and still, kind of jokish especially in description)?

Is this comment a joke?

I haven't tried compiling it, but even if large parts of the documentation say "this isn't finished yet" there are code and compilation instructions for Linux and OSX. If it's a joke then it's a joke that two contributors seem to have taken very seriously for a number of months now.

EDIT: Not like, say, Flynn... jab jab

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#8

Post by urbit » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:41 PM UTC

A better link would be the front page: http://www.urbit.org/

I guess on the Internets, you never release anything - it's released for you. Please be warned, (a) the doc is incomplete, (b) if you create an Urbit ship you'll eventually have to destroy it, as we don't have continuity yet.

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#9

Post by eli_gottlieb » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

Hoon is a high-level language which defines itself in Nock. Its self-compiling kernel, 7000 lines of code, specifies Hoon unambiguously; there is no Hoon spec. Hoon can be classified as a pure, strict higher-order static type-inferred functional language, with co/contra/bivariance and genericity. However, Hoon does not use lambda calculus, unification, or other constructs from “PL theory.” Hoon also excels at handling and validating untyped data, a common task on teh Internets. Its syntax is entirely novel and initially quite frightening.

Crank detected. Homing in for the kill.

Re: Urbit: A clean-slate functional OS

#10

Post by ajanuary » Tue, Sep 24, 2013, 5:47 PM UTC

So rather than having a lengthy standard it has lots of small non-standardized and brittle performance optimizations?

I remain skeptical over whether this tradeoff is worth it.