
A Constructive Look at TempleOS (2015) - beefman
http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-templeos/
======
adiusmus
Excellent article.

I think TempleOS migrated most of the interesting parts of the c64 over to the
pc quite well and updated as the developer saw fit. Deliberate limitations, eg
screen resolution, remove a massive amount of work which is necessary if
you’re a lone developer. Priorities are important.

That said, a lack of networking and decent sound support are the missing items
I’d add. A web browser would be nice but the layers of complexity required
makes that much less feasible. Networked versions of TempleOS would raise a
lot of interesting design decisions that are still worth exploring.

I like the thinking behind the shell, the hyperlinking etc and other os are
quite backwards in comparison with the integrated approach to the shell.
There’s a lot to be gained from grabbing some of these and bringing them into
linux etc. Curses could easily be used to do this, or something like Electron
or node.js. The thought of all that javascript to do the equivalent... the
mind boggles.

These alternative operating systems show that the mainstream doesn’t have all
the answers.

If assembly language doesn’t scare you, have a look at
[http://menuetos.net/](http://menuetos.net/)

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r3vo
I've been following the recent death/hoax of Terry Davis very closely.

As far as I can tell it is so far unconfirmed by any reliable sources. But
from what I've gathered it unfortunately seems likely that Terry has passed
away. The prominent theory is that he was a victim of an accident involving a
train in the Dalles, Oregon.

[http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/jan/03/local-
man...](http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/jan/03/local-man-killed-
train-dec-30/)

[https://i.imgur.com/b1EEp2T.png](https://i.imgur.com/b1EEp2T.png)

This has supposedly been confirmed by family members but everything I've heard
is from unscrupulous sources.

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Mister_Snuggles
The more I read about TempleOS, the more fascinated I am. I read articles like
this one and have trouble imagining how it can possibly work, but I know
that's just my Windows/Unix-centric mindset limiting my thinking.

I should really spark up a VM and try it out. It sounds like some quality time
with this would expand my view of how a computing environment can work.

------
Yhippa
I'm reading this thing nodding my head all the way down. Clean code
practicioners would balk at this but I thought this was cool:

> It's not every IDE that lets you embed images and flowcharts directly into
> your source code, that kinda makes you sit up and take notice. And yes,
> those flowchart boxes are hotlinked, so you can click on them to go directly
> to the source code that implements them.

Also the system-wide native autocomplete is cool. My old Palm Pre had that and
it was very handy.

So many cool bits of technology will remain in the shadows of history. So sad.

------
phendrenad2
One thing that stands out to me is that... TempleOS could have been even MORE
complex, but the author, for reasons he can best express, decided to limit
himself to 256 color VGA, no networking (if memory serves). It really serves
as an inspiration to not give up when people tell you “it’s too much work”.

~~~
sb057
Per Terry:

>God said 640x480 16 color was a covenant like circumcision. You can be
uncircumcised.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3mhxc9/templeo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3mhxc9/templeos_at_1024x512_resolution/cvf7ctv/)

~~~
themodelplumber
That's interesting to me because even seen as a pure negative, circumcision
was originally a minor trade-off in a covenant wherein God agreed to make
Abraham a "father of nations." And here, essentially, Terry makes a little
graphics sacrifice and, according to Terry, gets help from God himself in
building the rest of this remarkable TempleOS. Seen from that perspective it
makes the graphics seem like a minor deal.

This will probably cause the downvotes to rain down, but to continue the
Abraham analogy, who knows what Terry's work will go on to influence in the
future; maybe Terry becomes a "father" in a long chain of Temple-influenced OS
projects.

~~~
sterlind
I think you're right there. TempleOS is full of Bible metaphors - the root
task is Adam, HolyC is a pun, etc. The circumcision metaphor fits.

..I wonder how much more of Terry's seemingly nonsensical musings are actually
lucid metaphors. The man needed a translator (or the "holy spirit",
metaphorically speaking)

------
dagenix
I guess this in response to the passing / maybe passing of it's author, Terry
Davis. It's still not fully clear to me if that's a rumor or if it's real.

Regardless, it's clear that Terry is both a tremendously talented and deeply
troubled person. But, his personal troubles have nothing to do with the
technical merits of what he created - it's impressive, to say the least. These
accomplishments, however, don't in any way excuse his egregious behavior. He's
a complicated figure.

~~~
shawn
_These accomplishments, however, don 't in any way excuse his egregious
behavior._

Every time TempleOS comes up, someone chimes in with a remark like this. Can't
we just focus on the technical aspects?

~~~
matheusmoreira
Agreed. He wrote an operating system, a compiler and a whole lot more. That
kind of achievement deserves respect.

~~~
kbenson
Can we separate the cause for what drove him to do that from what caused his
other, less acceptable, behavior? There's been a lot of looking purely at the
technical merits of stuff in the past few decades, with quite little attention
paid to the causes or effects of the technology in question, to my mind. I'm
not sure it's left us in a particularly good position.

------
logicallee
The video linked at "[this" point is unavailable:

>In [this video] Terry gives a brief tour of some of the more interesting
features of TempleOS. At 5:50, he shows how to build a small graphical
application from scratch.

However, I was able to find it here:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20170313160408/https://www.youtub...](http://web.archive.org/web/20170313160408/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-dVp542XGk)

------
polkapolka
Gone to sleep for the final time.

Ash to ... And dust to dust.

------
pvg
From 2015 and previouslies:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=A%20Constructive%20Look%20at%2...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=A%20Constructive%20Look%20at%20TempleOS&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

------
Endy
I don't know if I could use this as an everyday OS, but I can see so much good
coming from it. Stop thinking about the newest, latest, and greatest. Stop
taking control away from the user. These things, and more, we should learn
from this project.

------
burlesona
This was a really thoughtful and interesting read. Thank you for posting it!

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analognoise
Didn't Terry just die recently?

~~~
throwaway66666
"Thou cannot kill God" \- Ecclesiastes 640, verse 480

It sadly seems so, but it has not been confirmed.

What is weird is that his site used to have a donations button -
[https://archive.fo/ltjBH](https://archive.fo/ltjBH) Then someone changed it
to suggest donations to charities in honor of his passing -
[https://archive.fo/M8Iut](https://archive.fo/M8Iut) And now it's completely
removed - [https://www.templeos.org/](https://www.templeos.org/)

~~~
nerflad
Might just be the slashdot effect, but his site is currently down.

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sergiotapia
Did Terry die or is it a very elaborate hoax? I've even seen screencaps of his
brother's facebook posting memorials of him.

