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Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

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Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#71

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

qubex wrote: post #68
Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, Zip disks! I entirely forgot those existed. Which is now bringing back memories of just how many different disk drives those late 90s computers would have. The desktops in my middle school would have floppy, zip, sometimes another floppy, and an optical/cd drive. Towers are now almost flat in front, with even optical CD/DVD drives disappearing in many corners, but back in the day there were disk bays everywhe…

And now even hard drives and their associated bays are disappearing (good riddance) as flash storage becomes increasingly prevalent in the form of SSD M.2 slots. Most functionality that was on expansion cards is now either redundant (sound cards, disk controllers) or integrated somehow onto the motherboard/chipset/processor (networking, integrated graphics, video in/out capabilities built into USB and HDMI ports)...

Very true. And to be clear, I much prefer the advent of solid-state based storage; I will be truly happy to never again have a HDD show up DOA. Or to hear an ominous crunch while working on something, and then realize the drive's just decided now is a good time to go bye-bye. I completely welcome the loss of moving parts.

But like I said, there was just something to the experience of working with diskettes. It felt more analog somehow.

I wonder if there was any such nostalgia for the days of tape/cassette storage.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#72

Post by baroffoos »

spicymaki wrote: post #12
twtw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, writing "scary" software like a compiler, an OS, a kernel driver, etc is more about bravery/daring than raw skill or intellect. There are quite a few people that know C and C++ in high school, so it seems reasonable that at least some of them would have someone (IRL or online) nudge them in the direction of an OS and tell them "it's not as hard as you think, if you dare to try." I don't say this to…

Much of the willingness to attempt to write “scary” software when you are young is being ignorant of the complexity involved. That is probably why younger people are so disruptive in tech as well. Older you get the more reasons why not to do something appears.

When I was shit at programming I started a lot more ambitious projects and I ended up finishing none of them. Now I know what to expect and I end up with something finished and useful most of the time. I suppose sometimes beginners attempt things that experts think are too hard but it ends up that you can make a workable solution even if it is structured horrible.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#73

Post by DrScump »

jmts wrote: post #61
d-sc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and this is the reason we can’t have nice things. Source: In 8th grade our class had to do a book report ‘project’. I selected an ebook on intro to processing (it’s an environment build on Java that lets you create graphics applications easily). I wrote an application that drove a (self built) 6-wheel drive robot wirelessly around our school for the project. Needless to say, there’s was little literary analysis d…

Overachievers should not be able to raise the bar. If they can, then the system is broken. Grades should be relative to the course content, not the abilities of the students. When I started university, it was clear that I had much more experience programming than the other students, but I had to do certain introductory classes anyway because there was no way to receive credit for half a decade of self learning. On on…

I started at a junior college and then transferred to a four-year University. There was a time when I was going to University where I was still backfilling some course credits to complete my Associates degree from my work at the junior college.

The respective school catalogs deemed some courses at one school to be equivalent to courses at the other school without really having them reexamined on a regular basis. As a result, one of the courses (Statistics?) that I needed to complete my Associate's degree requirements translated to a much simpler course equivalent at the University.

After the first day of class, the teacher came up to me and asked me, "what the heck are you doing here?" because he could tell from my interactions in class that I was already beyond the material of the course. I explained to him the situation, and he offered to come up with some sort of a challenge exam for which he would just give me full credit for the course. instead, I served as a kind of a de facto T.A. for about half time for the rest of the course.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#74

Post by DrScump »

covercash wrote: post #44
hrayr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CD-R: there's a word I hadn't heard for a long time. It's amazing how technology marches forward and you only notice it when you look back.

There’s a chance it’s also on a Zip disk somewhere in my basement!

Somewhere, in some box, I may yet have a disc with my first BASIC programs from high school.

On floppy disc.

On eight inch floppy disc. (DEC PDP 11/04)

I didn't keep the mark sense cards. I think.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#75

Post by masonic »

currymj wrote: post #36
covercash wrote: post #32

For my high school senior theology project, we were instructed to select a modern news event, categorize it into one (or more) of the seven deadly sins, and then give a class presentation. I miraculously convinced my group to choose the Microsoft antitrust case since I had just read the Wired cover story on it. Throughout the year, I sat in the back of the room and had a fake bible cover over my Flash 5 Bible and was…

which sin was it?? greed would be the obvious, but one could make a case for pride and sloth as well.

Using GOTOs.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#76

Post by PavlovsCat »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #71
qubex wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now even hard drives and their associated bays are disappearing (good riddance) as flash storage becomes increasingly prevalent in the form of SSD M.2 slots. Most functionality that was on expansion cards is now either redundant (sound cards, disk controllers) or integrated somehow onto the motherboard/chipset/processor (networking, integrated graphics, video in/out capabilities built into USB and HDMI ports)...

Very true. And to be clear, I much prefer the advent of solid-state based storage; I will be truly happy to never again have a HDD show up DOA. Or to hear an ominous crunch while working on something, and then realize the drive's just decided now is a good time to go bye-bye. I completely welcome the loss of moving parts. But like I said, there was just something to the experience of working with diskettes. It felt m…

> Or to hear an ominous crunch while working on something, and then realize the drive's just decided now is a good time to go bye-bye. I completely welcome the loss of moving parts.

"Why I'm usually unnerved when modern SSDs die on us"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18653728

You don't need moving parts for the drive to go bye-bye without warning.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#77

Post by someone454 »

DrScump wrote: post #74
covercash wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a chance it’s also on a Zip disk somewhere in my basement!

Somewhere, in some box, I may yet have a disc with my first BASIC programs from high school. On floppy disc. On eight inch floppy disc. (DEC PDP 11/04) I didn't keep the mark sense cards. I think.

Vic 20’s crappy cassette tapes are probably why I became a network admin instead of a programmer: 9 times out of 10 the cassettes never actaully saved my hours long programming sessions.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#78

Post by necovek »

DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #23
aswinmohanme wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed this http://www.osdever.net/bkerndev/Docs/intro.htm with some pointers from osdev wiki

Nice! I remember following this site back in the day. My tiny "OS" got till paged memory management and didn't really go any further. I used to use "Bochs" CPU emulator for testing.

Right, I used bochs too: it was a full emulator, none of this "let's just let the CPU really run these" things. :)

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#79

Post by necovek »

MRD85 wrote: post #50
RandomGuyDTB wrote: post #2

Jesus, at my high school it's an accomplishment to know how to read

I finished high school in 2003 at a large rural school that offered both Info Tech and Software Development for senior students. I took both and even our teachers were seriously lacking, in addition to the students. I would have killed to go to the city for schooling at a school where those topics were treated seriously.

Don't get me wrong, but no high-school teaches operating system development.

I did go to a kind-of-special school (Mathematical Grammar School in Belgrade) that did have advanced (for high-schools) IT subjects like assembly language development, database courses and similar, but as I said, even my teachers were surprised I actually had something to show off after presenting my work on an OS.

Re: Show HN: The operating system I built as my high school project (2016)

#80

Post by yaleman »

jmts wrote: post #61
d-sc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and this is the reason we can’t have nice things. Source: In 8th grade our class had to do a book report ‘project’. I selected an ebook on intro to processing (it’s an environment build on Java that lets you create graphics applications easily). I wrote an application that drove a (self built) 6-wheel drive robot wirelessly around our school for the project. Needless to say, there’s was little literary analysis d…

Overachievers should not be able to raise the bar. If they can, then the system is broken. Grades should be relative to the course content, not the abilities of the students. When I started university, it was clear that I had much more experience programming than the other students, but I had to do certain introductory classes anyway because there was no way to receive credit for half a decade of self learning. On on…

I did intro to programming as part of a degree as a mature-aged student and the only way to get a good mark was to do an "extra project" that the professor would sign off on. I wanted to make a GUI RSS reader with the ability to email links from things to people, that wasn't interesting/challenging enough in a class where we were learning about functions and loops. I gave up and took the not-perfect mark, quit the degree because their entire system was ridiculous, and haven't missed it.
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