On: Tales of the M1 GPU

[rjzzleep]

Of course it's possible in either. By the way, Mac drivers are in fact written in a subset of C++. At least they used to be, maybe that has changed.

[astrange → rjzzleep]

They are written in a strange subset of C++ with its own inheritance system and currency classes.

In NeXTStep they were written in ObjC, and probably should've stayed that way.

[pjmlp → astrange]

Just like UNIX kernel code is a strange subset of C.

I always find strange how "kernel C" is C, even though ISO C would bork in kernel space, but doing a similar C++ subset is pointed out as not being C++.

[astrange → pjmlp]

I'd also call kernel C strange. Mostly justified, but there's no particular reason the memory allocation call with the same behavior as malloc() in IOKit isn't named malloc().

[Razengan → astrange]

> They are written in a strange subset of C++ with its own inheritance system and currency classes.

Can someone explain? Is there something other than DriverKit, which seems to be C++?

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/driverkit

[pjmlp → Razengan]

You have to go back to IO Kit, Driver Kit is the new one in userspace.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/iokit

Which is how the Objective-C framework for NeXTSTEP drivers used to be called,

http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/...

[dagmx → Razengan]

I suspect they’re either conflating things with ObjectiveC or FireBloom (https://saaramar.github.io/iBoot_firebloom/)

Both would sort of fit those descriptions I guess if one were to squint.

[astrange → dagmx]

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/kernel/osmetaclass...

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/kernel/osarray

That kind of thing.

[dagmx → astrange]

Oh interesting. Thanks for the link