Theory and practice in operating system design

Abstract

In designing an operating system one needs both theoretical insight and horse sense. Without the former, one designs an ad hoc mess; without the latter one designs an elephant in best Carrara marble (white, perfect, and immobile). We try in this paper to explore the provinces of the two needs, suggesting places where we think horse sense will always be needed, and some other places where better theoretical understanding than we now have would seem both possible and helpful.