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What makes you assume that blindly copying Unix is necessarily the easiest way to learn OS building?

• daeken 17y ago
  It very well could not be, but what's important here isn't what's built, but how it's built. The concepts are important, not the end result. Compared to the vast majority of intro to OS tutorials out there, this is great. As I said, you can't expect someone to create something original unless they understand the mistakes of the past. I started off implementing toy kernels with no structure, moved on to Unix-like kernels, and eventually ended up in a realm entirely different. Just because someone starts out copying Unix doesn't mean they're going to be blind to other competing designs or completely unique ones. Expecting someone to build something new without any basis is just foolish.
  • asciilifeform 17y ago
    > Expecting someone to build something new without any basis is just foolish Base it on your mental model of how your CPU's internals ought to be used, as inferred from the latter's manuals - like 1980s microcomputer users did. Creativity exists.
    • daeken 17y ago
      I want to become a musician. If I listen to existing music, my creativity will be limited by what I've learned. Does that mean that listening to music is a bad thing if you want to become a musician?
      • asciilifeform 17y ago
        Music is a poor example: a field with unusually rigid cultural norms, where true originality is punished far more often than it is rewarded. So, taming one's creativity by exposure to current norms is exactly how you become a successful (permissibly mildly creative) musician.