winscape 2256
I think you *can* use gdb to debug the kernel if you have it running inside another kernel.
One neat trick in Linux is that you can run the kernel inside itself so you can play easier.
I think they achieved fundamental brokenness by accident- by trying to be different and innovative, but not making performance and quality and utility of primary importance, they succeeded in making things look different but not...
Alternately, a lot of people now do OS development on virtual machines, which give you a God's eye view of the virtual hardware as well as the OS.
Having said that, I still feel like some of the debuggers and compiler tools I used on minicomputers were sometimes a little nicer.
It's kind of a tossup... the DEC and Prime systems I used to use had some things which were better, but also a lot of things which are done much better now.
I definitely don't want to go back, but I do want to see UNIX gain the things that it is missing.
The debugger companion to the gnu toolchain is gdb. It has a number of incarnations, but they appear pretty...
Better yet... I wish some *serious* development was happening on new operating systems.
Most OS projects seem to die, or just never gain much attention.
-- shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- "And in billows of might swell the Saxons before her,-- Unite, oh unite! Or the billows burst o'er her!" -- Downfall of the Gael
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