> There's no presented reason why Minix drivers should have fewer bugs / LoC than linux
On a monolithic kernel, each and every driver is aware (or at least can be) of each and every other driver linked into the kernel. It may create added complexities that should be absent and abstracted in microkernel-based OSs.
Microkernels are not a silver bullet and buggy drivers will be able to put the system - buses, coprocessors, whatever - in weird states that can hang or crash the machine.
I like the idea of parameter validation on every function. That and extensive unit tests built into the kernel. Tests could be invoked on boot with a specific switch and the kernel would perform a self-test (with crash detection) before bringing up your system. This could help find hardware incompatibilities and other weird defects that could affect reliability of the whole box.
I don't think we would need a Haskell-like language. You can do very Haskell-ish things in C. All it takes is lots of discipline (just as much as writing Haskell)
Maybe forcing kernel developers to learn Haskell would help ;-)
I've never found that writing Haskell demanded much discipline at all, just follow a few simple rules (like making total functions etc.), and your code is well on the way to doing exactly what you think it should.
On a monolithic kernel, each and every driver is aware (or at least can be) of each and every other driver linked into the kernel. It may create added complexities that should be absent and abstracted in microkernel-based OSs.
Microkernels are not a silver bullet and buggy drivers will be able to put the system - buses, coprocessors, whatever - in weird states that can hang or crash the machine.
I like the idea of parameter validation on every function. That and extensive unit tests built into the kernel. Tests could be invoked on boot with a specific switch and the kernel would perform a self-test (with crash detection) before bringing up your system. This could help find hardware incompatibilities and other weird defects that could affect reliability of the whole box.
I don't think we would need a Haskell-like language. You can do very Haskell-ish things in C. All it takes is lots of discipline (just as much as writing Haskell)
Maybe forcing kernel developers to learn Haskell would help ;-)