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I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

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Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#51

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

Amen to that. Unix was never a good design, and now is severely out of date. We can no longer afford to hack around it.

"Unix was never a good design"

Nothing's perfect. Unix was a great design that served its purpose well for a long time, and evolved a bit along the way. Saying it was "never good" is trivializing and, in my opinion, arrogant.

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#52

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

I would like to see an updated file system architecture that's closer to a database, with tagging and all that. And I could see that extending to processes too.

But what are you imagining as alternatives for i/o and terminals?

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#53
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But the point of (early) NoSQL was IO optimization, not logical consistency.

I was curious about the parenthetical "early" in your comment. Is this optimization no longer the case then? Could you elaborate on recent developments regarding this? I've been out of the NoSQL loop for some time and am genuinely curious.

By early NoSQL, I mean the projects that are basically an API wrapped around a data structure, that push the understanding of the data structure onto the developer. Newer products (like my employer FaunaDB) prioritize correctness and offer abstract query interfaces like GraphQL.

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#54

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how do we report comments like this ? or just downvote them?

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#55

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how do we report comments like this ? or just downvote them?

Click on the timestamp 'x minutes ago' and select 'flag'.

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#56

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

Amen to that. Unix was never a good design, and now is severely out of date. We can no longer afford to hack around it.

Yeah, Unix was a terrible design. Composable architecture combined with standardized i/o and IPC models. I can't imagine anything worse, especially compared to today's proliferation of data formats and inscrutable APIs.

It's a good thing nobody uses it anymore.

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#57

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

Amen to that. Unix was never a good design, and now is severely out of date. We can no longer afford to hack around it.

Would you care to elaborate why Unix, in your opinion, was never a good design?

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#58

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

I am doubtful if hierarchical file systems have anything to do with slow disks. It a design pattern that you encounter all over in real life for human mind to manage large quantity of information. Using tags is another pattern but with its own pro and cons. Same goes for I/O steams, process hierarchy etc. There may be better designs patterns out there but I don’t see why these existing design patterns would become obsolete even if disks become as fast as RAM.

Re: I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]

#59

We need entirely new OS abstractions to replace the dated notions of hierarchical file systems built around the metaphor of file cabinets, I/O as streams of bytes, terminals, process hierarchy. Essentially, say goodbye to the Unix model after 50 years. It would open up an entirely new world of software experimentation and craftsmanship.

Amen to that. Unix was never a good design, and now is severely out of date. We can no longer afford to hack around it.

What a ridiculous statement. Yeah if it was possible to just jump to the best solution each time then we'd benefit massively, but that's not how any science works. The new awesome thing is always built on the back of what was done before. Electric cars have been around since the inception of the internal combustion engine but we didn't have electrical supplies with the energy density of gasoline to make electric cars possible until decades later, and modern life would've been (and remains, unfortunately) impossible without the energy density of fossil fuels. Hopefully someday we'll get past that, but when that happens, that doesn't then mean that fossil fuels were just a bad idea, they were the only stepping stone to what replaced them.
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