[TUHS] Booting v6

[luvisi@andru.sonoma.edu (Andru Luvisi)]

On 7 Apr 2004, Lars Brinkhoff wrote:
[snip]
> Is it still good reading?
[snip]

Absolutely fabulous reading!

The best part, in my opinion, is that when he is walking you through the
code of a function and you come to another function call, he gives you a
short description (sometimes just a couple of words, sometimes a few
sentences) of what that other function does so you can just keep on
reading the one you're in.

Since most time-space tradeoffs were made in favor of saving space and
spending time (64k limit for all kernel code and data on the 11/40), the
code is fairly straight forward (for example, linear searches instead of
hash tables) once you grok the magic of process switching and how system
calls work, which Lions helps with a lot.

He also gives a brief introduction to enough PDP-11 assembly and
architecture, and C, to understand the magic.  I found it to be a very
pleasant read a few years ago and I plan to read it again one of these
days.

Andru
-- 
Andru Luvisi

Quote Of The Moment:
  Heisenberg may have been here.