Re: Target native layer

[Dr. Torsten Rupp]

Dear Michael,

> NC (native code): We know its native code, its written in C.
>
> TN (target native): We know its for a special target. Its in a special 
> directory when using your solution.
>
> CP (ClassPath): We know its classpath BUT this makes it easy to 
> dinstiguish code defined in classpath or outside of classpath, e.g. 
> system headers.

I would like to do one more step: we know it is native code, but I would 
also like to know _which_ part it belongs to in the native code. I see 
two big parts: target-independent code and target-dependent code (one is 
above the target native layer, the other is inside the target native 
laxer). It would be nice to distinguish these two parts by a suitable 
prefix. Of course "CP" would do this (I can make an "alias" in my brain 
to map all "CP" to "this is target dependent code"), but I think some 
prefix which is indicates this more clearly would be better.

BUT: this detail is not really important. "CP" is ok for me, if it is ok 
for other people, too.

> But we should put ALL possible OSes into ONE posix layer. Solaris 
> needs no special layer. Its easy to support in a posix layer. That is 
> the way Free Software developers handle it since a long time. No need 
> to have it Solaris in an extra directory.

Yes, I following you in this point. That was it, I wanted to say with:

- combine posix-like systems - Linux, BSD, AIX, Solaris - into a single 
set of files in one directory (usage of autoconf for posix-like systems)

> I still have one question: what layers do you want to add and when ? I 
> still saw no other layer then the mis-named "Linux" one. I ask this 
> because layers for embedded OSes that we can never get in touch with 
> or somehow nonsense to all outside of AICAS. We could look at the 
> code but nothing else. This doesnt really help either.

I first wanted to avoid to offer here things in advance (otherwise I 
fear somebody will become upset if I can not do it in time, because of 
limitated manpower). Currently on the list is: Solaris, RTEMS, embOS and 
MinGW (Windows). Please do not ask me exactly _when_ I will supply this, 
but I promise I will do my best to add these as soon as possible.

By the way: I think "Linux" is not mis-named, because it is "Linux". It 
is only a "coincidence" that is 100% identical to the generic case. The 
background is: we are developing basically with Linux.

Sincerly,

Torsten