OSDev.org

The Place to Start for Operating System Developers
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:44 am

All times are UTC - 6 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Where would I learn more OS development?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:36 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:16 am
Posts: 23
Hey guys. I am currently using FASM. I would like to learn more OS development. What is a very good PDF or website for learning more OS development? I hope to find things to do with 16 bit and 32 bit Assembly. I know quite a lot of Assembly already.

Cheers
Steve.

_________________
One day in the future... computers will be holograms...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Where would I learn more OS development?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:42 pm 
Offline
Member
Member
User avatar

Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:36 pm
Posts: 2111
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Well, presumably this Web site is a good place to start. However, if I were serious, I'd read a textbook on OS theory, such as this or this. Even though a bit of assembly will be required for handling architecture-specific aspects (e.g., virtual memory, context switching, etc.), I would also look into using a "higher-level" language because assembly has severe disadvantages, such as:

  • The code is inherently unportable and, even for the same architecture, microoptimizations do not necessarily translate across microarchitectures.
  • It is difficult to maintain. Maintenance is one of the most important parts of managing large-scale projects. A typical mistake that beginners make is to think that because most practical problems that have short solutions are easy to solve, their experience scales to larger projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only that but good assembly code can actually be less efficient than compiled code because the compiler can afford to generate something that does not follow good practices. Humans, on the other hand, cannot.
  • It is unproductive.

PS: Please don't open several threads on the same topic or you will get everyone mad. You won't like it if that happens. :)

_________________
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.", Popular Mechanics (1949)
[ Project UDI ]


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Where would I learn more OS development?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 11:10 pm 
Offline
Member
Member
User avatar

Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:42 am
Posts: 1925
Location: Athens, GA, USA
If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend reading the introductory material in the wiki:


After this, go through the material on the practical aspects of running an OS-dev project:

Then you should read up on the core technologies for the platform, assuming (given what you have said already) that you are targeting the PC architecture, this would be:

I strongly suggest that you read through the first two sets of pages in detail, and preferably at least go through the third part briefly, before doing any actual development.

While this is a lot of reading, it simply reflects the due diligence that any OS-devver needs to go through in order to get anywhere. OS development, even as a simple project, is not amenable to the Stack Overflow cut-and-paste model of software development; you really need to understand a fair amount of the concepts and principles before writing any code, and the examples given in tutorials and forum posts generally are exactly that. Copying an existing code snippet without at least a basic idea of what it is doing simply won't do. While learning itself is an iterative process - you learn one thing, try it out, see what worked and what didn't, read some more, etc. - in this case a basic foundation is needed at the start. Without a solid understanding of at least some of the core ideas before starting, you simply can't get very far in OS dev.

Hopefully, this won't scare you off; it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. It just takes a lot of patience and a bit of effort, a little at a time.

_________________
Rev. First Speaker Schol-R-LEA;2 LCF ELF JAM POEE KoR KCO PPWMTF
Ordo OS Project
Lisp programmers tend to seem very odd to outsiders, just like anyone else who has had a religious experience they can't quite explain to others.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot] and 275 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group