logistix <logistix@zworg.com> wrote:

I think the point is that Python as a language provides absolutely no access to the machine internals.  You can't examine memory contents, registers, I/O bus or call code directly.  

Can you do this all in C? (without library functions coded in assembly)

As part of the bootstrap process the following four functions should probably be added to the interperter (either as builtin functions or a module):

   GetMemoryFromOS()    ReturnMemouryToOS()    Peek()    Poke()

ANd probably:    get/putRegister()    callCode()

Other than that, everything could (eventually) be written in Python.

If we were writing an Operating System, I would agree with you. (We can put down a Python based OS as another goal of the project. <while 1:wink()>) Fortunately, we aren't quite so low level. The standard OS functions tend to be higher level. As I understand it, much of libc.so on Unix systems is simply a very thin wrapper around OS functions which behave much like the C functions that call them. Since we don't want to reinvent the wheel, it would probably be best to reuse the standard interface provided. This is where the minimal C core comes in. We can probably limit it to basic input and output (PyBIOS?), plus a generic mechanism for discovering and calling dll/so functions. Or am I missing your point entirely? -Rocco __________________________________________________________________ The NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/