On 15/04/2011 5:00 AM, d.gnu-request@puremagic.com wrote:

Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:30:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: Iain Buclaw <ibuclaw@ubuntu.com>

== Quote from Brendan Simon (eTRIX) (brendan.simon@etrix.com.au)'s article
> >> > Can D be used in low-level drivers for Linux or other RTOS (e.g. freertos)

> > D is not really suitable for a freestanding environment. Especially if you intend to use any non-POD features of the language (C++ has the same problem too).
> So is it possible to use D in a limited capacity for a bare-metal, or
> low-level (rtos/kernel, driver) environment ??
Yes an no for the same reasons C++ is suitable for such a task.

It probably *could* be done (see the XOMB exo-kernel project), but requires you
implement a bespoke runtime, not use the one that comes bundled with DMD/GDC.

Had a quick look at XOmB and XOmB Bare Metal. It sounds very interesting, but also very young. I don't even think they have a filesystem or moderately complex C application working yet.

I wonder how it performs compared to other C based OSes ?? Probably hard to compare as it is not a traditional micro-kernel.

I believe that eCos is written in C++ (or a restricted subset), and I presume that it performs quite well, so given that, I see no reason why a D based OS/RTOS could not perform as well as eCos or other OSes.

-- Brendan.