[Novalug] Packages v. ports v. source -- WAS: Editors, indispensible features thereof.

jecottrell3@comcast.net jecottrell3@comcast.net
Mon Apr 5 16:14:09 EDT 2010


OK, so what I am saying supports your (Bryan's) point.

LFS was specifically destined to be a Tutorial; my point was that it Comes Up Short.

Your point was that Gentoo was a better thing to learn from anyway.

So far, so good.

But oftentimes it's appropriate to simplify what you are learning from. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to simplify things...they already WERE simple ... PDP-11's and minis in the 70s, microprocessors circa 1980. Gimme an A, B, and X register and a few magic memory locations to peek and poke, and I can write a toy operating system.

I can't imagine what it must be like to attempt to do the same thing on a PC these days. BIOS, VGA, PCI (just what DO those three numbers mean anyway?) memory segments and maps, CPU flags and extentions...where do you start?

We learn to drive smaller cars before we drive semi-trucks, and fly Cessnas before twin props and jets.

I dunno...maybe Gentoo is exactly at the right level, but OTOH, maybe its a bit complex.

JIM


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Sutton" <william@trilug.org>
To: "Bryan J Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>
Cc: "James Ewing Cottrell 3rd" <JECottrell3@comcast.net>, "Northern Virginia Linux User's Group" <novalug@calypso.tux.org>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 7:31:05 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [Novalug] Packages v. ports v. source -- WAS: Editors, indispensible features thereof.


On Mon, 29 Mar 2010, Bryan J Smith wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-03-28 at 17:39 -0400, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd wrote:
>> I see LFS as not so much as a Dismal Failure, but more as a Missed
>> Opportunity.
>
> LFS is just LFS.  I don't see a negative.  I just don't see much of a
> need to push people towards LFS when Gentoo exists.  You can learn most
> of what you need to know about Linux components by getting into Gentoo.
>
> It's much like I don't recommend people bother learning assembler for
> '90s (and later) superscalar processors, as C targets are almost always
> more optimized than what people could possibly learn with assembler.  C
> teaches you the same level of computer organization.
>
> In both cases, people who think otherwise haven't dove into the real
> internals, and are still clinging to either assumptions and/or outdated
> realities.
>
>
> --
> Bryan J Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>
>
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