One really cool question

[StevX]

- Hi

- In what programming language(s) was written Windows or Linux???

OK, that's all.

Good Bye.
StevX

[Oxyd]

Linux is mostly written in C (and some parts in assembly, of course). It's open source - the kernel source comes usually with the distribution you get (search for package called kernel-source, or simillar, if you have an rpm-based Linux system).

Windows isn't open source, so I don't know, but it ought to be C, because it has C API for other applications. But I heard rumors, the API is just a wrapper for the actual C++ source...

Oxyd

[Brendan]

Hi,

Windows isn't open source, so I don't know, but it ought to be C, because it has C API for other applications. But I heard rumors, the API is just a wrapper for the actual C++ source...

I don't know either, but AFAIK Windows API doesn't use the C calling convention, but instead uses the Pascal method. I doubt this implies it's written in Pascal though (most modern compilers support several calling conventions). Linux (for e.g.) uses software interrupt 0x80 and passes parameters in registers, even though it is written in C.

Besides, I think Windows is written in GW-BASIC ;D.


Cheers,

Brendan

[pini]

<troll>
Windows might have been written in goto++ (http://www.sidoine.net/gpp/)
</troll>

[Colonel Kernel]

The NT kernel was written in C. Most of the ugly user-land libraries (COM, the shell, and other nastiness) are written in C++... sort of. I had the chance to chat with some MS guys and they call it (jokingly) "Microsoft C++", which is really to say they historically used C++ as a better C most of the time.

With the growing push behind .NET (and std C++ conformance) internally at MS in recent years, I'd imagine that real OO design methodologies are starting to gain some traction there, but I'm not sure if this extends to the teams who work on the OS itself.