[gambit-list] good language for real time application?

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky znmeb at cesmail.net
Wed Feb 7 21:12:52 EST 2007


Vincent wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I want to write a router with real time performance. 
> I am trying to find the best language to use for it,
> and would like to use a functional language if
> possible.  Erlang might work, but I want to distribute
> the router incorporated into a Linux live boot CD, so
> I think that maybe whatever I distribute has to be GPL
> compatible.  I don't know if I can distribute the
> Erlang runtime with that license condition.  I tried
> to join the Erlang questions list to ask about that,
> but so far have not been able to join the list.
>
> Is Gambit Scheme suitable for real time applications? 
> Does it have a real time garbage collector?
>
> Vincent
>   
If you're talking hard real time, you're pretty much limited to three 
choices: C, assembler and Forth. Nothing else is going to be close 
enough to the hardware and interrupt structure.

Given that, and your requirement for open source, there's gcc for C and 
gforth for Forth. I'm not sure which assemblers are best; there are 
probably four or five usable assemblers for i86-32, but your choices may 
be more limited for other chip sets.

I would guess 98 percent of the router code these days is written in C. 
A lot of the guts of routing is already built into the Linux kernel, so 
you might be able to get away with a Scheme that compiles to C.

-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P)
http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/

If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire.




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