Thursday, January 13, 2011

Low-Level, Shmoe-Level

http://mikeos.berlios.de/write-your-own-os.html

Yeah. That's what I'm doing tonight. Because seriously.

Low-level is one of my many weaknesses, so things like this really appeal to me. Along with this, I've been working on getting through How Not To Program in C++ and Write Great Code, in parallel, and it has been a wonderful surprise how well the two books compliment each other. I was reading chunks of Write Great Code on an airplane, and when I finally got back around to following the code samples in How Not To Program in C++, I realized I had JUST read a section that almost directly related to the bug in the sample program. Lovely! I can't express how beneficial it is to be reading a book outlining abstract low-level concepts, and go to another book that shows a real-world example of how these concepts play out in an actual programming sample. Sure, the samples are rather small and arguably trivial, but it's a base that I have been woefully ignorant in. Operating systems in particular is another area I need some edumacation in, so I'm hoping that once I work through this example, I'll be able to approach the O'Reilly Linux Kernel book I have sitting in my room right now.

Here's to further education!

UPDATE: I completed this tutorial last night in a highly distracted hour, and it was excellent. Clear, concise, with a great sample, and delivered exactly what it promised...a bare-bones, functioning OS. If this catches your interest AT ALL, work through it and download the MikeOS source code. Very satisfying learning experience.

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