Editing Idris (operating system)

{{Other uses|Idris (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox OS
| name                   = Idris
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = [[Image:Atari Idris XWindows 1.jpg|250px]]
| caption                = Idris and the [[X Window System]] running on an [[Atari ST#Mega|Atari Mega ST]]
| developer              = [[P. J. Plauger]] ([[Whitesmiths]])
| source_model           = 
| kernel_type            = 
| supported_platforms    = [[PDP-11]], [[VAX]], [[Motorola 68000]], [[System/370]], [[Intel 8086]], [[Atari ST]], [[Apple Macintosh]], [[INMOS T800]]
| ui                     = [[Command-line interface]], [[GUI]] ([[X Window System]])
| family                 = [[Unix-like]]
| released               = {{Start date and age|1979}}
| latest_release_version = 
| latest_release_date    = 
| latest_test_version    = 
| latest_test_date       = 
| marketing_target       = 
| programmed_in          = 
| prog_language          = 
| language               = [[English language|English]]
| updatemodel            = 
| package_manager        = 
| working_state          = Historic
| license                = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]] [[commercial software]]
| website                = 
}}
'''Idris''' is a discontinued multi-tasking, [[Unix-like]], multi-user, [[real-time operating system]] released by [[Whitesmiths]], of [[Westford, Massachusetts]]. The product was commercially available from 1979 through 1988.

==Background==
Idris was originally written for the [[PDP-11]] by [[P. J. Plauger]], who started working on Idris in August 1978. It was [[binary compatible]] with [[Version 6 Unix|Unix V6]] on PDP-11, but it could run on non-[[Memory management unit|memory managed]] systems (like [[PDP-11#LSI-11|LSI-11]] or [[PDP-11#Models|PDP-11/23]]) as well. The [[kernel (operating system)|kernel]] required 31&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KB]] of [[Random-access memory|RAM]], and the [[C compiler]] (provided along with the standard V6 toolset) had more or less the same size.

==Ports==
Although Idris was initially available for the PDP-11, it was later [[ported]] to run on a number of platforms, such as the [[VAX]], [[Motorola 68000]], [[System/370]] and [[Intel 8086]]. There was also a version that used bank-switching for memory management, that ran on the [[Intel 8080]].

In 1986, David M. Stanhope at [[Computer Tools International]] ported Idris to the [[Atari ST]]<ref>Compute!'s Atari ST, issue 7, October 1987, page 13</ref> and developed its [[Read-only memory|ROM]] boot [[ROM cartridge|cartridge]]. This work also included a port of [[X Window System|X]] to Idris. Computer Tools and Whitesmiths offered it to [[Atari]] as a replacement for [[Atari TOS]], but eventually marketed it directly to ST enthusiasts.

A specific version of Idris (CoIdris) was packaged as a [[.COM file]] under [[DOS]] and used it for low level [[I/O]] services.

Idris was ported to the [[Mac (computer)|Apple Macintosh]] (as MacIdris) by John O'Brien (of Whitesmiths Australia) and remained available until the early 1990s. MacIdris ran as an application under the [[Finder (software)|Finder]] or [[MultiFinder]].<ref name="MacWorld">[[MacWorld]] November 1989, page 18 [http://groups.google.es/group/comp.sys.mac/browse_thread/thread/895d09514529481d/070efaa04cc11fcd quoted] in [[comp.sys.mac]]</ref>

After Whitesmiths had been merged with [[Intermetrics]], Idris{{snd}} along with its development [[toolchain]]{{snd}} was ported by Real Time Systems Ltd to the [[INMOS T800]] [[transputer]] architecture for the [[Parsytec]] SN1000 multiprocessor.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Unix-like}}

[[Category:Discontinued operating systems]]
[[Category:PDP-11]]
[[Category:Unix variants]]
[[Category:68k architecture]]