[cap-talk] A Taxonomy of Current Object-Cap Systems

[Bill Frantz]

toby.murray at comlab.ox.ac.uk (Toby Murray) on Friday, March 6, 2009 wrote:

>On Thu, 2009-03-05 at 14:10 -0800, Charles Landau wrote:
>> Toby Murray wrote:
>> > The current systems included in the taxonomy are:
>> > EROS/CapROS
>> 
>> EROS and CaPROS are two different systems and should be listed 
>> separately. The CapROS implementation has diverged significantly from 
>> EROS, and the design has also to a lesser extent.
>> 
>
>Thanks for that. Can you tell me whether EROS still runs? Could you also
>have a look at the current taxonomy
>(http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/people/toby.murray/tmp/taxonomy.pdf) and
>tell me whether CapROS deviates from EROS in any of the items listed
>(which are all defined in bullet points after the table.) Is there some
>CapROS documentation I can point to to justify assertions that are made
>about it in the table? (Ideally, I'd like to provide a reference to
>back-up every claim that it makes for all systems there.)

I think the taxonomy is the same for Gnosis, KeyKOS, EROS, and CapROS.

For Gnosis/KeyKOS (two of the many names this system has been marketed
under), see:
<http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/agorics/KeyKos/Gnosis/keywelcome.html>,
and particularly:
<http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/agorics/KeyKos/Gnosis/17.html#splx3>.

For CapROS, see: <http://www.capros.org/>

For EROS see: <http://www.eros-os.org/eros.html> and particularly:
<http://www.eros-os.org/devel/intro/ProgrmrIntro.html>

I don't know if there is currently a running EROS system.



>> Bill Frantz wrote:
>> > toby.murray at comlab.ox.ac.uk (Toby Murray) on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 wrote:
>> > 
>> >> >Notable omissions therefore include KeyKOS and
>> >> >(D)CCS (the first object-capability OSes) and Gedanken (the first
>> >> >object-capability language).
>> > 
>> > I believe that a direct descendent of KeyKOS was released by Agorics (RIP)
>> > under an open source license. Every time I try to give it a name, I get
>> > told, "Oh no, that's not the name. That name has IP problems."
>> 
>> Whatever the name, it's at http://www.cap-lore.com/CapTheory/KK/Apridos/.
>> It runs on a computer that's no longer for sale (if it ever was), but if 
>> someone has one, they could run it.
>> 
>> The S/370 version of KeyKOS will run on a S/370 emulator (there's one 
>> for the PC). It's proprietary, but the owners of the code could write 
>> code for it today. I'd argue for its inclusion.
>
>Good. If you tell me how these fit into the taxonomy I'll certainly
>include them.

Again, in terms of your taxonomy, I think these systems are the same.

Cheers - Bill

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