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hi guys,

I'm starting on the Minix book. I almost finish the first chapter, and apart from the theory ( and abit system calls), I still dont get much.

Just want to ask people who have finished the book, what would be the best way to go through it?

I mean how could you know when to start to look at the code or maybe we do it right at the beginning, but where to start, there is alot here. How the program is loaded in memory, and what what is the first bit of code that get executed? ....

Thanks heap and sorry for a dump question

wererabit wrote:I'm starting on the Minix book. (...), what would be the best way to go through it?

It's written as companion to a university course, so just read it cover to cover.


JAL

i studies operating systems design all by myself with this book and you can indeed understand it, alas you really DO need to read the first chapter several times (i think i read it about 5 times until i finally got my head around the source described in it)

berkus wrote:Sorry for not doing my homework, but is it freely downloadable (the Book, that is) somewhere?

I'm not aware of any free and legal download option. The official Minix 3 site links directly to Pearson, which lists the book with a "Suggested retail price: $132.00" (I have it on my bookshelf since years but I didn't remember that I paid that much for it. And the most shocking is that I just paged through it a bit.). I don't think they are going to give it away for free.

--TS

Hyperdrive wrote:I'm not aware of any free and legal download option. The official Minix 3 site links directly to Pearson, which lists the book with a "Suggested retail price: $132.00"

Amazon lists it for $93.01 (why that one cent?).


JAL

jal wrote:

Hyperdrive wrote:I'm not aware of any free and legal download option. The official Minix 3 site links directly to Pearson, which lists the book with a "Suggested retail price: $132.00"

Amazon lists it for $93.01 (why that one cent?).

Hm... Because they wanted to save you 30% and not 29.946%?

Amazon wrote:List Price: $132.00
Price: $93.01 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $38.99 (30%)

But 30% of what? $38.99 aren't 30% of $132 for example... That's strange.

EDIT: German Amazon lists it for 114.99 € and that would be ~ $150.64. But it also says the suggested retail price in the US is $132. But that would be 100.76 €. Always assuming the rough current exchange rate of 1:1.31 ... When they listed it the exchange rate must have been 1:1.14/1:1.15 ... The last time we had such a rate was end of September 2003. But the third edition (the one listed) appeared in 2006. ... Hm.

--TS

berkus wrote:Sorry for not doing my homework, but is it freely downloadable (the Book, that is) somewhere?

Yes, although illegally. I won't post any illegal links, but Googling for "Operating systems design and implementation.pdf" (including the quotes) will give you a link to various (illigal! I repeat ILLEGAL!) downloads (e.g. from ineedfile.com).


JAL

berkus wrote:Well, if it's not free, I'll wait till I absolutely need it, if ever. Thanks!

Personally, I don't like unfree stuff either. However, there are exceptions, e.g. specifications of hardware (PCI etc.), I have no reservations against downloading them. In this specific case, I did download (though not yet read) the illegal copy, knowing that a) I'll probably purchase it anyway someday (if not the fourth edition if it is ever released), and b) I'll currently not going to use (or even read it) it to an extent that warrents purchase.


JAL