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For one, on some OS's (like Windows), the syscall interface is unstable, so you really want to use kernel32.dll and friends or you're signing up for pain. Even if you're on an OS with stable syscalls, there are plenty of vendor-specific DLLs you have to work with: GPU drivers, for example.

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>For one, on some OS's (like Windows), the syscall interface is unstable

True but if someone is dealing with syscalls on Windows they're programming something very unusual.

>so you really want to use kernel32.dll and friends or you're signing up for pain.

Why? There is no pain involved unless a function that isn't implemented in older versions is imported.

You don't have to use syscalls directly. If you statically link a library that makes system calls, then a syscall interface change will break your app. But if you wrap all system calls in a dylib, then that dylib insulates you against syscall interface changes.

Syscalls are irrelevant for almost everybody programming Windows applications. I didn't write about Mac OS X.

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