• bearophile (5/5) Jul 14 2011 An article about the problems in using C++ to write Windows drivers, "C+...
• Paulo Pinto (14/26) Jul 15 2011 At least MacOS X drivers are developed in a subset of C++
• Walter Bright (7/17) Jul 15 2011 All that article says is you can't write Windows device drivers without ...

bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:

An article about the problems in using C++ to write Windows drivers, "C++ for
Kernel Mode Drivers: Pros and Cons" (February 2007):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487420.aspx

The article shows why C++ is not so fit for this purpose. Is D even worse for
this purpose? If this is true then is it possible to improve D a bit for such
low level purposes? How? Even if it is possible to improve D to such purposes,
is it worth it? Such purposes after all are quite a niche, most programmers
don't need to write kernel mode drivers and similar things. Anyway, I hope
someday people will design a system language better than C and very fit for
such niche but important purposes too :-)

Bye,
bearophile

"Paulo Pinto" <pjmlp progtools.org> writes:

At least MacOS X drivers are developed in a subset of C++
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation

Symbian is fully C++ with some assembly

So there are at least two comercial OS using C++ to write kernel drivers.

If we take Modula2+, Modula-3 and Oberon family of languages into 
consideration, there are quite a few OS using higher
level languages to write their drivers, even if the OS were mostly used 
inside research labs. I am sure there are a few
more examples available.

So I don't see an issue with D.

--
Paulo

"bearophile" <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> wrote in message 
news:ivnt08$17og$1 digitalmars.com...
 An article about the problems in using C++ to write Windows drivers, "C++ 
 for Kernel Mode Drivers: Pros and Cons" (February 2007):
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487420.aspx

 The article shows why C++ is not so fit for this purpose. Is D even worse 
 for this purpose? If this is true then is it possible to improve D a bit 
 for such low level purposes? How? Even if it is possible to improve D to 
 such purposes, is it worth it? Such purposes after all are quite a niche, 
 most programmers don't need to write kernel mode drivers and similar 
 things. Anyway, I hope someday people will design a system language better 
 than C and very fit for such niche but important purposes too :-)

 Bye,
 bearophile 

Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:

On 7/14/2011 4:10 PM, bearophile wrote:
 An article about the problems in using C++ to write Windows drivers, "C++ for
 Kernel Mode Drivers: Pros and Cons" (February 2007):
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487420.aspx

 The article shows why C++ is not so fit for this purpose. Is D even worse for
 this purpose? If this is true then is it possible to improve D a bit for such
 low level purposes? How? Even if it is possible to improve D to such
 purposes, is it worth it? Such purposes after all are quite a niche, most
 programmers don't need to write kernel mode drivers and similar things.
 Anyway, I hope someday people will design a system language better than C and
 very fit for such niche but important purposes too :-)


All that article says is you can't write Windows device drivers without being 
familiar with how your compiler generates code, and how device driver code 
differs from regular code, and how to adapt to those differences. This applies 
to C, C++ and D.

Writing kernel code simply isn't for people who aren't willing to do this, 
regardless of what language they use.