Hi,
I often implement an object namespace (visible to the application at run-time) for primary objects managed by the RTOS. This is invaluable in distributed applications as it allows the implementations to be more effectively decoupled (I really can't imagine any other way of supporting such applications that wouldn't be incredibly brittle!).
But, the RTOS I'm currently writing doesn't export any objects beyond the local host. And, I can let threads pass handles directly for objects of interest so there is no need to provide the formal namespace (a luxury that space can't afford).
But, being able to "tag" key objects with a suitable "name" often helps with debugging (you can inspect the memory image associated with the object to "see" it's name embedded therein). This has very minimal impact (depending on how much space the developer wants to waste on these tags).
However, without the formality of the (active) namespace manager, there is nothing to guarantee these tags are meaningful, unique, etc.
And, at (production) run-time, they would be completely useless (since I see no reason to add support for querying them via the API). I.e., they seem like they *might* only have value at DEBUG time.
Is this sort of hack helpful? Or, just a silly decoration that distracts rather than assists??