win32metadata VS Theseus

As /u/huellenoperator notes, that this needs a pointer to a mutable string comes straight from microsoft through win32metadata. Maybe it's a mistake on Microsoft's side, but if it's not you're taking big risks.

Microsoft offers official "bindings" to Win32 APIs through win32metadata. However, until recently, it did not include metadata for kernel-level functions or WDK. In early 2021, an issue was raised through windows-rs regarding this limitation, but progress was slow until now. Microsoft has finally released official metadata for WDK, which can be found on the wdkmetadata repository. The latest comment on the issue thread can be found here:

for win32metadata's kernel api tracking issue, https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata/issues/401

Any examples? Since the API bindings in windows-sys are generated from the metadata generated from official Windows SDK headers I'd not expect to see this kind of difference.

You might also look at this project: https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata

There is still the occasional incredibly subtle link time fuckery in Rust.

https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata/issues/1274

"Minor" semver updates to crates breaking things via e.g. unexpected MSRV bumps is pretty common too, with some resulting bitrot. That said, I agree with you that things in Rust are at least better. Imperfect, but better.

Win32 is available as metadata to enable adoption in as many languages as possible. Are there some things missing? Yes. The Microsoft team acknowledges that and encourages asking for the things you need so they can add them to the metadata.

It might be interesting to have bindings generated for the entirety of Win32 API through https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata

Hi JB! Funny to cross paths with you in this context. I don't know if you remember me but I was a rookie programmer who got the pleasure of joining the VideoLan Conference in Dublin back in 2014, and then Paris the next year, and you were very kind to me.

The GitHub issue title here is unfortunately misleading. I have renamed it to "ideas to improve windows header files and libc". Also, I hope it is clear that I rebutted the points made by the OP, because I completely agree with your summary that the mingw-w64 people are skilled, nice and very clever and think about all use cases.

If any drive-by HN readers work at Microsoft, please help us with this issue: https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata/issues/766

Theseus OS (https://www.theseus-os.com/) is also an OS written in Rust. It's a safe-language OS and I believe it's the future of the OSes due to its unique features.

I believe that Tock (tockos.org) and Theseus (https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus) are in this area a bit as well, just from an actual OS perspective.

I don't know much about this area, but it would be wonderful if these could work with the Libre compute boards, like the AM Logic S905X (Lepotato) or the Rock chip, since they're so much cheaper than a Pi.

We could use some help here: https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus

Relevant, also an OS written in and made possible by Rust: https://www.theseus-os.com/

I think Theseus is to conventional OSes what Rust is to JavaScript.

I wonder if somehow someday Microsoft Windows can be rerooted as something like wine running in user space of a rust os like https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus

We've been working on porting Theseus OS to aarch64 over the past few months, feel free to browse our code if you need help understanding anything. Theseus is written from scratch entirely in Rust, so it's likely quite relevant to your work. You can probably find all of the aarch64-related commits and issues just by searching "aarch64" on the repo.

I mean, there are several rust kernel/os projects in progress.

One project that's pushing on the boundary of safety and composability is Thesus, which takes language safety to new ground by shifting traditionally OS-level responsibilities like resource management all the way down to typechecks in the language, and also explores a way of updating any core OS component on a live running system. https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus

There's also KataOS which google just recently announced: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2022/10/announcing-kataos-...

As you note, these things take time, I agree with sibling that none of them are likely to be "enterprise-grade" or "production ready" this decade.

Not to rain on your parade, but you've essentially just described Theseus OS.