BubbleOS is a tiny bubble of sanity in a universe of insane operating systems. It’s self-bootstrappable — it includes all the tools needed to build it, edit its source code, and so on — and it can be used as a robust front end to a family of less sane systems. This provides a variety of benefits.
You can use BubbleOS as a standalone computing environment, run it as dom0 under Xen, or run it as a process under Linux (including Android), MacOS X, Microsoft Windows, or an HTML5 browser.
BubbleOS contains the following:
It does not provide a POSIX API.
This is 32 major components in all. I’d better get cracking!
Bikeshed-style, the thing I am currently devoting my attention to is what to name the components. Names from Consider Phlebas:
Perosteck Balveda (Juboal-Rabaroansa Perosteck Alseyn Balveda dam T’seif), Gravant (alias for Perosteck Balveda), Amahain-Frolk, Egratin, Bora Horza Gobuchul (Horza, shapeshifting traitor), Xoralundra, Farn-Idir (sect), Schar, Heibohre, Rairch (species), Kraiklyn, Zallin, Wubslin, Yalson, Gow, kee-Alsorofus, Marain (language), Tzbalik Odraye, Mipp, Rava Gamdol, Aviger, Lenipobra, Lamm (traitor), Cifetressi, Dorolow, Jandraligeli, Chicel-Horhava, Neisin, Sro Kierachell Zorant, Fwi-Song (cannibal), Twenty-seventh (redshirt), First (acolyte), Sarble the Eye, Ghalssel, Tengayet Doy-Suut, Wilgre, Neeporlax, Xoxarle, Unaha-Closp (drone), Stafl-Preonsa Fal Shilde ’Ngeestra dam Crose (Fal ‘Ngeestra), Gimishin Foug.
Names from The Dispossessed: 46. 32 Pravic names along the same lines:
Bebach, Chagvol, Chapis, Chekoks, Chigvigv, Dupin, Gvegob, Komush, Kvakot, Kvushab, Lassep, Logog, Makul, Mokob, Pabar, Palab, Pechol, Pevip, Pichok, Reshub, Shishek, Shivaks, Shumin, Sikvok, Siroks, Skemun, Sotat, Suvun, Trapan, Trekvish, Vabon, Vavun.
Those are too similar.
Names from gen24.py:
Slilg, Floung, Gealgpru, Grapvirveag, Quiphdrusp, Kalgspricloost, Theagproohool, Shophslylg, Wimsplup, Houbdrid, Quyngdryg, Azpream, Greashgrystscoul, Yynpraint, Speazwhof, Scrussbres, Bealggusssprush, Kelpluf, Kasplach, Ploonchag, Prontseng, Graispclooshchuss, Kreassweaxheaph, Nyz, Yoontstaif, Doontdoup, Noosh, Clackblum, Dechspat, Plosttaix, Splez.
Those are too silly.
Names from gen24.py generated with some English probabilities, with real words removed:
./gen24.py 40 /usr/share/dict/words .1 | awk '{print $1}' | LANG=C sort
Achem, Dep, Dirness, Atafli, Essdi, Enlini, Rera, Tiomtru, Dercal, Bii, Abhar, Difodent, Nibanspo, Lincalent, Semeed, Veskeno, Ingex, Lum, Onel, Chantcor, Iiz, Reelfin, Blocklo, Leconscrip, Ura, Satyrpo, Editdish, Igstrud, Cing, Inon, Harfa, Etordot.
Okay, I think that’ll work.
Another candidate naming convention takes sequences of letters, numbers, and symbols that spell words in Spanish. For example, “5p” means “faint away” and would work well for the checkpoint-and-restart facility (as might “k+” “beds” or “ck” “dry”), “g+” means “jewels” and would work well for a packaging system, “kb0” means “headboard” or “header”. And “ogo” means “glance” and would work well for the windowing system.
Oops, unfortunately “ogo” is already “an OpenFlow Network controller in Go”, a handheld computer sold from 2004–2006, an abbreviation for “OpenGroupware.Org”, and a mobile phone dating app similar to Tinder. So, without more detail, that name is right out. Something like “ogoak” (“ojeo acá”, “a glance here”) or "ogoc2o" (“silky glance”) or "ogo☼o" (“ojeo solo”, “just a glance”) might work; none of them exist.
Wercam securely multiplexes input and output between mutually untrusting applications while guaranteeing glitch-free animation and instant responsiveness to system commands 100% of the time, despite the efforts of malicious applications. Additionally, applications can upload executable bytecode to Wercam to provide glitch-free bounded-latency visual feedback to user actions without writing the whole application as a bounded-latency system.
It includes VNC and RDP clients for remote access to other graphical systems.
Wercam is about 1000 lines of real-time Leconscrip.
(The predecessor to 8½ was “a few hundred lines of source code using [Newsqueak]”, and 8½ itself was about 5–15kloc, but 8½ supported 23 operations in /dev/bitblt and a bunch of font nonsense. Rio was smaller and simpler.)
See also files Scriptable windowing for Wercam, Window systems, and Real time windowing.
Intranin securely multiplexes the CPUs, memory, disk, and GPU between mutually untrusting application processes, which are isolated using objet-capability discipline, and furthermore securely enables hard-real-time control applications to meet microsecond deadlines 100% of the time.
Intranin is about 2000 lines of real-time Leconscrip, plus a few hundred lines of Abhar assembly for each platform.
Oops, “DEP” (the original name) already has a meaning in infosec, “data execution prevention”: https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2018/q4/82. Renamed to Shang.
Oops, “Shang” (the name replacing Dep) is already https://github.com/etherzhhb/Shang, free software for compiling C to RTL. Intranin!
Atafli is a set of character-cell terminal emulators that are hardened against resource-exhaustion attacks. They run on Wercam and are useful for running older programs or providing access to remote machines, but when writing programs for BubbleOS, it’s easier and provides better results to use Essdi.
Atafli is about 500 lines of real-time Leconscrip.
Essdi is a modern replacement for character-cell terminal output streams, preserving their ease of programming and guaranteed real-time performance (a particularly big contrast when compared to the janky pause-filled experience that is an HTML5 web browser) but providing enough of the CSS box model that it’s easy to write things that look good. Most applications that run on Wercam use it to do their layouts.
At times, Essdi privileges responsivity over correctness.
Essdi is about 800 lines of real-time Leconscrip.
In the 1970s, text editors were separate application programs, but they turned out to be useful for handling the user interfaces of other application programs. Graphical user interfaces embedded tiny text editors all over other applications.
Enlini implements enough of TCPv4, IPv4, and UDPv4 to support the minimal BubbleOS network services: an ssh client and server, a Bitcoin client, and an HTTP client and server. It uses a parser-driven approach reminiscent of the STEPS TCP/IP stack.
Veskeno, the virtual machine, is, in some sense, the bedrock of the system; everything else runs within it. But Veskeno alone is unusable; you need programs for the virtual machine in order to do things with it. And for that you need at least some version of Abhar, the assembler, running.
Given a definition for Veskeno’s instruction set and I/O architecture, this ought to be a matter of a few hours of programming (initially in C or Python), but coming up with the instruction set could easily take longer than that. Probably writing a few drafts is a good idea, but then I need to test each one with some kind of code generator.
In Abhar or low-level Leconscrip I can write a bootstrap interpreter for high-level Leconscrip, and then I can write a compiler for high-level Leconscrip in itself.