Unix/C program modularity

[jss at UCB-VAX.Berkeley.EDU]

I am delighted to receive your comments, and I suspect that in great bulk
we agree with each other, though your statements are more refined than mine.

A question about database systems, however.  Unix provides fixed length record
access, but not locking.  While I agree that a database library should be
external to the kernel (sp?), I think that named and unnamed semaphores and
file byterange locking should be added to the kernel, as these would provide
the basis for a great deal of flexibility not presently available.

As to the comment that UNIX does not protect mediocre or bad programmers, I
am inclined to agree. Sadly, there are all too few goo programmers, including
those who wrote UNIX (i.e. they weren't ALL good).

I would be curious to find out what you feel the minimal changes to the UNIX
kernel would be to support network interprocess communication and secure
database transactions, particularly in a distributed environment.

Jon

P.S., if either of wyou wishes to be taken off of the cc list, please let me 
know.