A. N. Habermann

A well-known problem in the design of operating systems is the selection of a resource allocation policy that will prevent deadlock. Deadlock is the situation in which resources have been allocated to various tasks in such a way that none of the tasks can continue. The various published solutions have been somewhat restrictive: either they do not handle the problem in sufficient generality or they suggest policies which will on occasion refuse a request which could have been safely granted. Algorithms are presented which examine a request in the light of the current allocation of resources and determi.~e whether or not the granting of the request will introduce the possibility of a deadlock. Proofs given in the appendixes show that the conditions imposed by the algorithms are both necessary and sufficient to prevent deadlock. The algorithms have been successfully used in the THE system.

Different programming projects require different environments, but handcrafting a separate environment for each project is not economically feasible. Gandalf solves this problem by permitting environment designers to generate families of software development environments semiautomatically without excessive cost. Environments generated using Gandalf address programming environments, which help ease the programming process, as well as system development environments, which reduce the degree to which a software project is dependent on the good will of its members. Gandalf environments integrate programming and system development, permitting interactions not available in traditional environments. The paper covers the basic characteristics of Gandalf environments. The method used to generate these environments, the structure and function of several existing environments, and ongoing research on the project.

A language, BLISS, is described. This language is designed so as to be especially suitable for use in writing production software systems for a specific machine (the PDP-10): compilers, operating systems, etc. Prime design goals of the design are the ability to produce highly efficient object code, to allow access to all relevant hardware features of the host machine, and to provide a rational means by which to cope with the evolutionary nature of systems programs. A major feature which contributes to the realization of these goals is a mechanism permitting the definition of the representation of all data structures in terms of the access algorithm for elements of the structure.

This paper describes the design philosophy used in the construction of a family of operating systems. It is shown that the concepts of module and level do not coincide in a hierarchy of functions. Family members can share much software as a result of the implementation of run-time modules at the lowest system level.