[nomenclature] systems language

[Simen kjaeraas]

Justin Johansson <no at spam.com> wrote:

> Touted often around here is the term "systems language".
>
> May we please discuss a definition to be agreed upon
> for the usage this term (at least in this community) and
> also have some agreed upon examples of PLs that might also
> be members of the "set of systems languages".
> Given a general subjective term like this, one would have
> to suspect that the D PL is not the only member of this set.

My understanding of the term:

- Compiles to native code
- Gives direct access to low-level primitives (pointers,
     register-size integers, bitwise operations)
- Allows pointer arithmetic
- Does not stand in the way of getting low-level work done
- Has a well defined ABI
- Lets you do manual memory management

Not sure which languages do fit this definition, except of
course C, C++ and D.

-- 
Simen