CP/M as an RTOS (was Re: Dumb OS question)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sat Apr 17 19:51:16 1999

Allison wrote regarding RTOSes:

> CP/M and believe it or not DOS (there are DOS look alikes that are RT)
> can be as well.

Which is not so much because CP/M or DOS actually is an RTOS (they aren't),
but that they don't get in the way of the programmer. The programmer is
free to write his own interrupt handlers, and even a task scheduler.

Note that this very feature that makes such an OS potentially usable for
real-time systems is exactly what makes them poor choices as platforms
for general-purpose computing. Too much code gets written that works around
the OS for no especially good reason.

Note that a "proper" RTOS both doesn't get in the way, *and* provides
useful real-time services.
Received on Sat Apr 17 1999 - 19:51:16 BST