[9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan]

Not really about Plan 9, but I found this blog post and the comments
(there is even a comment from Rob Pike) very interesting and thought of
sharing here.

<https://spin0r.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/kr-c/>

--
  Ramakrishnan

Re: [9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[Aleksandar Kuktin]

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>On Fri, 11 Sep 2015 14:16:49 +0530
>Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan <ram@rkrishnan.org> wrote:
>
> Not really about Plan 9, but I found this blog post and the comments
> (there is even a comment from Rob Pike) very interesting and thought
> of sharing here.
> 
> <https://spin0r.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/kr-c/>
> 

Which reminds me - I should read Plan 9's source. At least the kernel.

Any pointer about where to start? I tried with the boot code, but it
jumped around a lot and I lost track of it.

- -- 
Svi moji e-mailovi su kriptografski potpisani. Proverite ih.
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- --
You don't need an AI for a robot uprising.
Humans will do just fine.
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Re: [9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult]

On 11.09.2015 10:46, Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan wrote:

> <https://spin0r.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/kr-c/>

"In those days, a directory in UNIX was a file that contains a list of
file names and some indication of where they are located (p. 169)."

... reminds me on something ;-)



-- 

mit freundlichen Grüßen
--
Enrico Weigelt,
metux IT consulting
+49-151-27565287

Re: [9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[Brantley Coile]

Nemo's book is excellent. He has one on the user space aide of plan 9 as well. http://lsub.org/who/nemo/9.intro.pdf. 

I would suggest first reading the file portdat.h and dat.h and getting some idea of the structures used in the system. Seeing the data structures first is essential to understanding Bell Labs code. Then learn the syscall path and start by walking through some of the familiar calls, adding new ones until you exhaust them. There aren't many. By that time you'll understand how the system works. You then can walk through the boot strap procedure.

Device drivers, dev*.c, are fun to read but for drivers interfacing to real hardware you'll need the vendor's hardware manual to really understand them. The devsd and devether with its many "mini-port" drivers are a bit of a world to themselves. The IP stack more so.

I would also highly recommend Ken file server as well. It's smaller in scope and has many of the same concepts as the later kernel. I would study as early a version as you can find. 

Not the only order to learn the code but one that has worked for me. 

Brantley

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 11, 2015, at 6:48 PM, Aleksandar Kuktin <akuktin@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2015 14:16:49 +0530
>> Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan <ram@rkrishnan.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Not really about Plan 9, but I found this blog post and the comments
>> (there is even a comment from Rob Pike) very interesting and thought
>> of sharing here.
>> 
>> <https://spin0r.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/kr-c/>
> 
> Which reminds me - I should read Plan 9's source. At least the kernel.
> 
> Any pointer about where to start? I tried with the boot code, but it
> jumped around a lot and I lost track of it.
> 
> - -- 
> Svi moji e-mailovi su kriptografski potpisani. Proverite ih.
> All of my e-mails are cryptographically signed. Verify them.
> - --
> You don't need an AI for a robot uprising.
> Humans will do just fine.
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Re: [9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[Aleksandar Kuktin]

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>On Sun, 13 Sep 2015 07:04:23 -0400
>Brantley Coile <brantleycoile@me.com> wrote:

> Not the only order to learn the code but one that has worked for me. 

Many thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I'm reading the Notes on
the kernel (and realizing why people say x86 is a horrible
architecture). Now only to get QEMU up and running...

- -- 
Svi moji e-mailovi su kriptografski potpisani. Proverite ih.
All of my e-mails are cryptographically signed. Verify them.
- --
You don't need an AI for a robot uprising.
Humans will do just fine.
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Re: [9fans] Pre-ANSI C

[sl]

> Which reminds me - I should read Plan 9's source. At least the kernel.
>
> Any pointer about where to start? I tried with the boot code, but it
> jumped around a lot and I lost track of it.

Francisco Ballestros (nemo) wrote a guide to the 3rd Edition kernel
source code:

	http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/_books/comp/plan9/Notes.On.The.Plan.9.3rd.Edition.Kernel.Source.pdf


It's a bit outdated at this point, but is still helpful to understand
what's going on.

sl