haiku VS v86

Haiku uses the System V ABI (mostly.) So, we're doing the same things Linux and the BSDs are here, simply by using GCC or Clang without any special tuning here.

> I reckon that before trying to claim you've innovated here it might be a good sense check to compare baseline.

The baseline is "what are other operating systems' kernel- and userland-level condition variables APIs?" And none of the ones I looked at had anything like what Haiku has here, they all have something which is the more classical "lock-switched condvars" just like POSIX has.

The API itself does not depend on what memory ordering semantics are any more than a "mutex_lock()" API does. The implementation will be somewhat contingent on it, of course, but those are two separate matters.

> What exactly are the Haiku atomic operations, in terms of the C++ 11 Memory Model?

The atomic_() functions are (on most architectures, x86 included) implemented using GCC/Clang's __atomic_* functions, with various __ATOMIC_* orderings chosen as appropriate. You can see them defined in the system header here: https://github.com/haiku/haiku/blob/master/headers/os/suppor...

> because you're innovating before 2011, you're inventing the model

No, not really? GCC has had atomic builtins since at least 4.1.0 in 2006. The documentation (https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.1.0/gcc/Atomic-Builtins...) says: "In most cases, these builtins are considered a full barrier. That is, no memory operand will be moved across the operation, either forward or backward." -- which is basically equivalent to today's __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST.

> so Haiku is off in the jungle on its own and everybody else has a map now, figure out where you are on that map first.

We already did that years ago. The atomic_() functions linked above in SupportDefs.h have been implemented using the C++11-standard GCC builtins since 2014, and the older __sync_ builtins for years before that.

Anyway, the algorithm described in this article, even if Haiku's atomic functions were not 1:1 with C++11-standard definitions (which they are, as noted above), is clearly portable to other OS kernels. So I am not sure what basis your comment has, regardless.

I'm currently trying to build Haiku from source (following https://github.com/haiku/haiku/blob/master/ReadMe.Compiling.md), but I'm getting errors while building with "jam -q -j12 @nightly-anyboot".

Something like this? https://github.com/haiku/haiku/tree/master/src/add-ons/accelerants/radeon

> As a thought experiment, we're almost there! We could technically have `win95.img + bochs86vm.wasm + autorun.inf + msword.exe` wrapped in a "browser evaluator"

I looked into this and... holy crap! We are there. Not for modern programs quite yet, sure, but this is amazing. You can use Windows 2000 from your browser.

https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows2000

I think you are looking for Shadow.

https://shadow.goose.icu

Or just the whole kitchen sink. Why not?

http://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows98

Also: https://github.com/copy/v86 - more productized browser x86 runtime, used by eg https://github.com/snaplet/postgres-wasm

Wonder if you could put all those databases in a Linux image and boot it using v86 [0], eliminating the need for a server.

[0] https://github.com/copy/v86

Trying it out in https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=kolibrios , it's also clearly a love letter to Windows 95 in particular. That could be an unstated goal here, create a very particular PC experience under very particular constraints. I don't know anything about the creator but it's very possible that this kind of work was actually their career in the 90s.

It's incredible how much work was done. Maybe this should be an internet curiosity like how TempleOS has become, though Terry's personality was a unique factor.

hmm, why would people still use VMWare? Isn't vbox open source, or even things such as https://copy.sh/v86/ would do most virtualization trick now days?

Oh, there are more OSes one can use at the parent page:

https://copy.sh/v86/

My highlights:

- First version of Windows (1.01)

- SerenityOS <3

- and even ReactOS