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I wrote a toy operating system for school that I recently(ish) released to the world. It comes with source code and design documents so I thought it might be in

I wrote a toy operating system for school that I recently(ish) released to the world. It comes with source code and design documents so I thought it might be interesting for people to poke around in.

kragen 18y ago
Looks like fun! What kind of drivers does it have? And what license?
- eworoshow 18y ago
  It was fun! Well, fun modulo writing and debugging all the code in three months. As for drivers, the OS really only interfaces with 8250 UARTs; both the VT100 terminal and the Marklin digital interface for the trains were connected via RS-232 serial ports. There is also, embedded in the kernel, a micro VGA driver for displaying debug messages. I don't exactly have a specific open source license in mind. Right now I suppose you could say it's public domain. I'd be happy for it to stay that way, unless somebody would like to convince me otherwise?
  - kragen 18y ago
    If you want it to be public domain, you could use the Creative Commons Public Domain Deed to clarify that. Right now, if I were to download your code, decide not to use it, write something similar, make a successful commercial open-source product from it, and then you got hit by a bus and your sister inherited your copyright, she could sue me on the theory that you didn't really know what it meant when you said, "I suppose you could say it's public domain." It's a little depressing to hear you say it took you three months working really hard, because it means it would probably take me about the same time. (I have no reason to think I'm any smarter than you are.) Maybe I should stick to AVRs for real-time stuff...
    - eworoshow 18y ago
      Aha, well I'm an only child! Either way, I added some text saying everything is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License; thanks for the advice. I'll plead ignorance with your second sentence. AVRs? And why should it depress you that it took me three months? (Keeping in mind that I was taking other classes at the time, and that there was a ton of competition for lab space.)
      - blasdel 18y ago
        Creative Commons Attribution is not the Public Domain, and it's not a good idea to use the CC licenses for source code. If what you want is for the code to always have your name on it, you should use a 4-clause BSD license (the original one with the advertising clause).
        Jebdm 18y ago
        Also, for the record, there is this: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ It's not really a license, it just lets you certify that you are putting your work in the public domain.
        eworoshow 18y ago
        Ah, thanks for clarifying things. Now I have the code licensed under an MIT license. Out of curiosity, what are the implications of changing the license on software you've already released?
        ricree 18y ago
        As far as I know, there is no problem at all issuing code under a new license provided that everything in the code is yours. The only tricky issue I can think of is that you can't really revoke an earlier license, so if you are moving to a less permissive license you can't stop people from redistributing under the previous license. So if you decided to relicense from something like BSD to GPL, you couldn't stop people from releasing the earlier version under the BSD, but there is nothing keeping you from only hosting and working on the GPL branch.
holdenk 18y ago
CS452 for the :P I hear rumours they are moving away from x86 for that course, have you heard anything about it?
- eworoshow 18y ago
  Yes, Cowan wants to buy ARM processors. I believe he is planning on soliciting funding from the Mathematics Endowment Fund this term. (disclosure: I'm the MEF Director)

I wrote a toy operating system for school that I recently(ish) released to the world. It comes with source code and design documents so I thought it might be interesting for people to poke around in.

kragen 18y ago

Looks like fun! What kind of drivers does it have? And what license?

eworoshow 18y ago
It was fun! Well, fun modulo writing and debugging all the code in three months. As for drivers, the OS really only interfaces with 8250 UARTs; both the VT100 terminal and the Marklin digital interface for the trains were connected via RS-232 serial ports. There is also, embedded in the kernel, a micro VGA driver for displaying debug messages. I don't exactly have a specific open source license in mind. Right now I suppose you could say it's public domain. I'd be happy for it to stay that way, unless somebody would like to convince me otherwise?
- kragen 18y ago
  If you want it to be public domain, you could use the Creative Commons Public Domain Deed to clarify that. Right now, if I were to download your code, decide not to use it, write something similar, make a successful commercial open-source product from it, and then you got hit by a bus and your sister inherited your copyright, she could sue me on the theory that you didn't really know what it meant when you said, "I suppose you could say it's public domain." It's a little depressing to hear you say it took you three months working really hard, because it means it would probably take me about the same time. (I have no reason to think I'm any smarter than you are.) Maybe I should stick to AVRs for real-time stuff...
  - eworoshow 18y ago
    Aha, well I'm an only child! Either way, I added some text saying everything is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License; thanks for the advice. I'll plead ignorance with your second sentence. AVRs? And why should it depress you that it took me three months? (Keeping in mind that I was taking other classes at the time, and that there was a ton of competition for lab space.)
    - blasdel 18y ago
      Creative Commons Attribution is not the Public Domain, and it's not a good idea to use the CC licenses for source code. If what you want is for the code to always have your name on it, you should use a 4-clause BSD license (the original one with the advertising clause).
      - Jebdm 18y ago
        Also, for the record, there is this: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ It's not really a license, it just lets you certify that you are putting your work in the public domain.
        eworoshow 18y ago
        Ah, thanks for clarifying things. Now I have the code licensed under an MIT license. Out of curiosity, what are the implications of changing the license on software you've already released?
        ricree 18y ago
        As far as I know, there is no problem at all issuing code under a new license provided that everything in the code is yours. The only tricky issue I can think of is that you can't really revoke an earlier license, so if you are moving to a less permissive license you can't stop people from redistributing under the previous license. So if you decided to relicense from something like BSD to GPL, you couldn't stop people from releasing the earlier version under the BSD, but there is nothing keeping you from only hosting and working on the GPL branch.

holdenk 18y ago

CS452 for the :P I hear rumours they are moving away from x86 for that course, have you heard anything about it?

eworoshow 18y ago
Yes, Cowan wants to buy ARM processors. I believe he is planning on soliciting funding from the Mathematics Endowment Fund this term. (disclosure: I'm the MEF Director)