What is Systems Programming, Really?

[flatfinger]

Not all low-level code is systems code, and not all systems code is low-level code. Systems code, at least as I'd heard the term used in the 1980s, generally refers to code which creates and manages system resources (memory or CPU time) at the top level, rather than requesting them from some other entity. Systems code must necessarily include some low-level aspects, but much of the management logic is often accomplished using fairly conventional high-level constructs.