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C has been the standard system language almost since the time of its creation. Teaching that standard is valuable even if we’re in the midst of a change. As fo
by BirAdam 2y ago
C has been the standard system language almost since the time of its creation. Teaching that standard is valuable even if we’re in the midst of a change.
As for why, a system designed to be pedantic will necessarily be different from one intending to be production ready.
Why i386 and BIOS? It is simple enough for the purpose of teaching. Inundating a student with modern x86-64, UEFI (where most implementations do not meet standards), and such is not a great idea. People just get overwhelmed and shut down. It may be worthwhile to start with something simpler honestly, like DOS and 8088, or even CP/M and 8080. Working one up through time exposes the individual to simpler things and then progressively more complex things. It is useful.
As a side benefit, teaching people about these older things instructs them on how and why things came to be the way they are which may help create better entrepreneurs.
- Rochus 2y ago> even if we’re in the midst of a change. What change do you refer to? Concerning C: C has obviously proven itself in countless system and embedded projects of all sizes. Nevertheless, C essentially represents the state of knowledge of the early seventies. Projects like the one discussed would be a good opportunity to test newer languages for their suitability for operating system and embedded development, without the pressure of a commercial project. > Why i386 and BIOS? It is simple enough for the purpose of teaching. Agree; that's also one of the reasons operating systems like xv6 dedicated for teaching do so; I'm therefore interested in how Fiwix positions itself in relation to xv6.
- pjmlp 2y agoC was hardly seen as systems language in 8 and 16 bit home computers, just one more to chose from, as most compute intensive stuff was actually still written in Assembly.