From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: erik quanstrom Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:20:45 -0500 To: me@acm.jhu.edu, 9fans@9fans.net Message-ID: <9ad6c896cc1ad905714b3c2255a1dbf4@coraid.com> In-Reply-To: <20090223215942.GA30413@unknown> References: <138575260902230741t4672eacaw1f3f9f928638e0ab@mail.gmail.com> <14989d6e0902231344h1a5cf501ge8afb8024d0992a4@mail.gmail.com> <20090223215942.GA30413@unknown> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] spreding the word Topicbox-Message-UUID: a720cb62-ead4-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon Feb 23 17:02:29 EST 2009, me@acm.jhu.edu wrote: > >if you're after the historical progression of how the > >structure of the kernel evolved, the file server kernel > >is much more interesting. > > Any bits in particular? Any reason why? port/proc.c is very interesting, as are pc/lock.c and pc/trap.c. they are all very interesting as they illustrate the same concepts the pc kernel deals with, but they are substatially simplier. i fear i've complicated things a bit. hardware is more complicated these days. naturally, the fs kernel is less capable. it lacks dynamic memory, for example. but the beauty is that it doesn't need those things. i think it's an interesting study in tradeoffs. einstein said "make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler". i think ken's take is that if it's not simple enough, you're solving the wrong problem. - erik