Java is everywhere. Berkeley CS162 course uses Java language to teach OS Design and Internals - they wrote a pseudo-code examples in Java, a-la SaveRegisters(). It is a madness, Isn't it? ^_^
Significantly easier. Think about all those pointers that simply aren't there now.
> which is a more appropriate in this context
This is a value judgement.
The generally nicer semantics (automatic memory management! proper strings!) are also worth a lot.
There's nothing worse than something like bar = *[&foo + 88] or whatever it is.
And of course, using a VM-hosted language to describe things which are on two levels of abstraction lower is a little bit funny.
Because manual memory management is a PITA.
> And of course, using a VM-hosted language to describe things which are on two levels of abstraction lower is a little bit funny.
Why? As long as you're clear that it's a pedagogical tool, it's perfectly fine. And there are incubation OSes (e.g. Singularity) that are almost entirely managed.
btw, to whom memory management is a PITA?
Both the syntax and the semantics are nicer.
> btw, to whom memory management is a PITA?
To anyone who tries to do it. That automatic memory management is easier to program with than manual memory management is self-evident.