https://github.com/AllenDowney/ThinkOS

Text and supporting code for Think OS: A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems, by Allen Downey.
https://github.com/AllenDowney/ThinkOS

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

Text and supporting code for Think OS: A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems, by Allen Downey.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/AllenDowney/ThinkOS
• Owner: AllenDowney
• Created: 2014-03-19T14:10:01.000Z (over 10 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2020-04-28T23:52:39.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-05-13T12:32:22.380Z (4 months ago)
• Language: TeX
• Size: 935 KB
• Stars: 542
• Watchers: 33
• Forks: 218
• Open Issues: 7
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

• starred-awesome - ThinkOS - Text and supporting code for Think OS: A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems, by Allen Downey. (TeX)

README

        
Think OS

========

A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems

-----------------------------------------

by Allen B. Downey

Download this book in PDF and HTML from http://greenteapress.com/thinkos

Copyright 2014  Allen B. Downey.

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

### Preface

In many computer science programs, Operating Systems is an advanced

topic.  By the time students take it, they usually know how to program

in C, and they have probably taken a class in Computer Architecture.

Usually the goal of the class is to expose students to the design

and implementation of operating systems, with the implied assumption

that some of them will do research in this area, or write part of

an OS.

This book is intended for a different audience, and it has different

goals.  I developed it for a class at Olin College called Software

Systems.

Most students taking this class learned to program in Python,

so one of the goals is to help them learn C.

For that part of the class, I use Griffiths and Griffiths, Head

  First C, from O'Reilly Media.  This book is meant to complement

that one.

Few of my students will ever write an operating system, but many of

them will write low-level applications in C, and some of them will

work on embedded systems.  My class includes material

from operating systems, networks, databases, and embedded systems, but

it emphasizes the topics programmers need to know.

This book does not assume that you have studied Computer Architecture.

As we go along, I will explain what we need.

If this book is successful, it should give you a better understanding

of what is happening when programs run, and what you can do to make

them run better and faster.

Chapter 1 explains some of the differences between compiled and

interpreted languages, with some insight into how compilers work.

Recommended reading: Head First C Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 explains how the operating system uses processes to

protect running programs from interfering with each other.

Chapter 3 explains virtual memory and address translation.

Recommended reading: Head First C Chapter 2.

Chapter 4 is about file systems and data streams.

Recommended reading: Head First C Chapter 3.

Chapter 5 describes how numbers, letters, and other values are

encoded, and presents the bitwise operators.

Chapter 6 explains how to use dynamic memory management, and how

it works.

Recommended reading: Head First C Chapter 6.

Chapter 7 is about caching and the memory hierarchy.

Chapter 8 is about multitasking and scheduling.

Chapter 9 will be about threads.

Chapter 10 will be about synchronization with POSIX mutexes and

condition variables.

### A note on this draft

The current version of this book is an early draft.  While I am

working on the text, I have not yet included the figures.  So

there are a few places where, I'm sure, the explanation will be

greatly improved when the figures are ready.