Hilarious system calls in the BeOS

These system calls in the BeOS still make me smile.

int32 is_computer_on(void)

Returns 1 if the computer is on. If the computer isn't on, the value returned by this function is undefined.

double is_computer_on_fire(void)

Returns the temperature of the motherboard if the computer is currently on fire. If the computer isn't on fire, the function returns some other value.

#include <stdio.h> 
#include <be/kernel/OS.h> 
int main() 
{ 
printf("[%d] = is_computer_on()\n", is_computer_on()); 
printf("[%f] = is_computer_on_fire()\n", is_computer_on_fire()); 
} 

These functions serve a similar purpose to getpid() in Unix, essentially no-op calls that can be used to test the kernel's intrinsic response time under load.

Write up of BeOS history is here, Haiku is an open source clone of the BeOS that is curiously under active development.

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