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Amsterdam Compiler Kit

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Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#51

Post by lproven »

hmry wrote: post #40
unusual-name wrote: post #9

It's interesting that they have a Raspberry Pi GPU backend, but neither an ARM backend nor any modern ISA. (such as x86-64, Aarch64, etc.) Is there any example program that actually runs on the rpi gpu? I skimped the website, but it is only mentioned in the release notes.

Presumably someone wanted to write an RPi bootloader, which run on the GPU. Several universities have OS programming courses that use old 32-bit RPis. Not sure if anything was actually written though.

> Not sure if anything was actually written though.

The librerpi project

« librerpi is a FOSS boot firmware based on littlekernel for Raspberry Pi boards, it replaces the proprietary boot firmware normally used to boot. »

https://librerpi.github.io/

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#52

Post by lproven »

unusual-name wrote: post #9

It's interesting that they have a Raspberry Pi GPU backend, but neither an ARM backend nor any modern ISA. (such as x86-64, Aarch64, etc.) Is there any example program that actually runs on the rpi gpu? I skimped the website, but it is only mentioned in the release notes.

> Is there any example program that actually runs on the rpi gpu?

ThreadX.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX#Products_using_ThreadX

This RTOS, later rebranded Microsoft Azure RTOS, later still made FOSS:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/28/microsoft_opens_sourc...

ThreadX is the RasPi firmware. The GPU is the primary processor of the Pi: the ARM cores are essentially just co-processors.

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#53

Post by DonHopkins »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #35
userbinator wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the Free University Compiler Kit, also known as VUCK. (The Dutch word for “free” is written with a v.) I'm not sure if I'm reading satire or they are having some fun trolling.

Of course RMS understood the overtone perfectly, but Vrije Universiteit (vu.nl) is the real name of the university. Its name can be translated to "liberated university". As I understand it, it's a free university in the sense that historically, students of all religions were eligible to attend, as opposed to e.g. Katholieke Universiteit which was Catholic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrije_Universiteit_Amsterdam

Vrije as in "Not Catholic", not as in beer.

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#54

Post by [deleted] »

spit2wind wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relevant bit: " Shortly before beginning the GNU Project, I heard about the Free University Compiler Kit, also known as VUCK. (The Dutch word for “free” is written with a v.) This was a compiler designed to handle multiple languages, including C and Pascal, and to support multiple target machines. I wrote to its author asking if GNU could use it. He responded derisively, stating that the university was free but t…

> I love it how RMS has both these quotes in the same text: > > "Please don't fall into the practice of calling the whole system “Linux,” since that means attributing our work to someone else. Please give us equal mention." > > "This makes it difficult to write free drivers so that Linux and XFree86 can support new hardware." > > And there are only a few lines between those quotes. I'll be honest, I don't understand…

[deleted]

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#56

Post by phicoh »

jacquesm wrote: post #46
phicoh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling ACK meant money for research into distributed systems (Amoeba) and parallel programming languages. I can see that money for research is more attractive than open source. For MINIX the situation was different and I think more unfortunate. AST wanted to make sure that everybody could obtain MINIX and made his publisher agree to distributing the MINIX sources and binaries on floppies. Not something the publisher…

I disagreed strongly with that at the time and still do. The money we're talking about here was a pittance compared to the money already contributed by Dutch society to the university where these people were working. Besides that some of these royalty streams went into private pockets. A friend of mine was studying under Andy and I had a chat with him about this at his Amstelveen residence prior to the release. He wa…

Universities get paid for teaching and research. Any software that is produced is a by product. Producing production quality software in a university is not easy and the university has to find a way to fund it.

MINIX was originally a private project of ast. It worked very well for the goal of teaching student the basics of operating systems.

One thing that might have been a waste of time is making the MINIX utilities POSIX compliant. Then again, many students would like an opportunity to work on something like that. The ones that wanted to work on Linux could just do that. Students worked in their free time on lots of interesting projects that were unrelated to the university.

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#57

Post by andsoitis »

vrijen wrote: post #34
userbinator wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the Free University Compiler Kit, also known as VUCK. (The Dutch word for “free” is written with a v.) I'm not sure if I'm reading satire or they are having some fun trolling.

The adjective meaning "free" is "vrij" or "vrije" in Dutch. Amusingly, the Dutch verb "vrijen" does, in fact, mean to have sex.

I like the Afrikaans (evolved from Dutch) even better for its streamlined spelling and double-use depending on context:

Vry == "free" (noun) or "to court/kiss/have sex" (verb, contextual).

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#58

Post by pjmlp »

jacquesm wrote: post #25
ptx wrote: post #15

Is this the same compiler that famously spurred Richard Stallman to create GCC [1] when its author "responded derisively, stating that the university was free but the compiler was not"? It seems to be free now anyway, since 2005 according to the git history, under a 3-clause BSD license. [1] https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.en.html

The relevant bit: " Shortly before beginning the GNU Project, I heard about the Free University Compiler Kit, also known as VUCK. (The Dutch word for “free” is written with a v.) This was a compiler designed to handle multiple languages, including C and Pascal, and to support multiple target machines. I wrote to its author asking if GNU could use it. He responded derisively, stating that the university was free but t…

He means Linux the kernel, getting new drivers.

Another interesting fact is that until Linux came to be, GCC only became relevant because Sun started the trend among UNIX vendors to split UNIX into user and developer SKUs, thus making the whole development tooling behind an additional license.

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#59

Post by JJMcJ »

spit2wind wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relevant bit: " Shortly before beginning the GNU Project, I heard about the Free University Compiler Kit, also known as VUCK. (The Dutch word for “free” is written with a v.) This was a compiler designed to handle multiple languages, including C and Pascal, and to support multiple target machines. I wrote to its author asking if GNU could use it. He responded derisively, stating that the university was free but t…

> I love it how RMS has both these quotes in the same text: > > "Please don't fall into the practice of calling the whole system “Linux,” since that means attributing our work to someone else. Please give us equal mention." > > "This makes it difficult to write free drivers so that Linux and XFree86 can support new hardware." > > And there are only a few lines between those quotes. I'll be honest, I don't understand…

RMS calls it Linux, not GNU/Linux in the second quote.

Re: Amsterdam Compiler Kit

#60

Post by JJMcJ »

phicoh wrote: post #45
throwaway81523 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course RMS understood the overtone perfectly, but Vrije Universiteit (vu.nl) is the real name of the university. Its name can be translated to "liberated university". As I understand it, it's a free university in the sense that historically, students of all religions were eligible to attend, as opposed to e.g. Katholieke Universiteit which was Catholic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrije_Universiteit_Amsterdam

The librarated part means free from government control. Until the VU all Dutch universities belonged (indirectly) to the Dutch government.

Some universities, especially in Latin America, use the term "autonomous". Is that the same thing is "free" in this context?
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