1.FP lucidasans 2.nr PS -1 3.nr VS -1 4.TL 5Preface 6.SP 0.4i exactly 7.LP 8Inferno benefits from the results of many years of systems research 9at the Computing Science Research Center at Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs. 10The system is clearly a cultural descendent of the earliest Unix systems, 11and amongst Inferno's inventors, listed below, are several venerable programmers 12associated with the development of Unix. 13Inferno looks out on a very different world from Unix: complexity is no longer 14confined to large mainframes, but has sprawled 15across world wide networks, trapping programmers in its web. 16.LP 17Inferno tackles this as radically now as Unix did then. 18First, it adopts key ideas from the system Plan 9, also from Bell Labs: 19.IP \(bu 20Replace a plethora of protocols by a simple, unifying file service protocol (Styx), 21that can be served even by tiny devices, giving a uniform 22way to access objects throughout the network. 23.IP \(bu 24Let applications `compute a name space': all resources are represented 25as file systems, which an application assembles into an application-specific 26hierarchy or `name space', private or shared, that hides their source (local or remote) 27and nature (static or dynamic), for completely transparent access. 28.IP \(bu 29Using those primitives, implement windowing systems, networked graphics, remote debugging, 30device control, and much more, with remarkable ease 31and great simplicity. 32.LP 33Inferno carries Plan 9's ideas further. 34Plan 9 virtualised resources; Inferno virtualises the whole system. 35The operating system kernel can run both native and `hosted' on a range 36of platforms presenting identical interfaces on all, offering wider portability. 37The Limbo programming language offers proper concurrent programming, 38and straightforward yet dynamic modularity. 39The Dis virtual machine allows applications to cross architecture boundaries 40invisibly during execution. 41Inferno shows the `continued appliance of computer science'. 42.LP 43The original development team at Bell Labs was 44Sean Dorward, Rob Pike and Phil Winterbottom, 45with Eric Grosse, Jim McKie, Dave Presotto, 46Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson and Howard Trickey. 47Many others have contributed much since then, both within Lucent and without. 48.LP 49Inferno® is now a supported, commercial product of Vita Nuova. 50The Third Edition of the Programmer's manual marked that event. 51The Fourth Edition brings many changes in content, but also makes the full 52source available as Free Software under a new `dual licence' scheme. 53.LP 54.sp 55.in 4i 56.nf 57.ft I 58.ce 100 59Dave Atkin 60John Bates 61Danny Byrne 62John Firth 63Charles Forsyth 64Michael Jeffrey 65Chris Locke 66Roger Peppé 67Nigel Roles 68.sp 69Vita Nuova 70.br 71June 2003 72.ce 0 73.in -4i 74