OSDev.org

Hello.

I am a novice programmer. I don't yet know enough to write an operating system,but the interest is there. I am just wondering what I should begin with in programming that will lead me to this goal. What languages and projects are best to start with? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Writing an operating system is quite a large and complicated task, and sadly not for the novice. I suggest getting more confident in C/C++ and dabling in some assembly before thinking on the scale of an operating system - then try checking out any exisiting operating systems projects to see what's involved - several of these on sourceforge.net. Also I suggest subscribing to alt.os.development and checking out what goes on there.

hth,
osteron

Thank you. That is the general direction in which I am working. I am aware of the complexity involved, which is why I know I need to get much better before I attempt it.

Some knowledge of hardware (kinda minimal really) and some basic theory on how an OS works, or how you _think_ it should work  and a language like C.

You could go all assembly.

Thanks again. That is actually getting me off in the right direction.

Thanks again. That is actually getting me off in the right direction.

actually, OS theory is a must, if you're doing something in this area.

Check out Alexei's newgroup reply to a similar question...

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&l ... a2cd219,11

thread 5, I think...

hth,
osteron

If you havn't started on any language yet, then Qbasic is probably the best to get an idea of programming with. Because you can not actually make an OS with Qbasic, you would then be best to move on to C or Assembly. Qbasic is one of the easiest languages, and is the one that a lot of people start with. If you have Windows 95(98?), then you have Qbasic on your Windows CD, in the other\oldmsdos directory, or you could just search the CD for "QBASIC" with the Windows find program. Qbasic has a very good help file with it for all the different commands. Anyway, whatever you do start with, I hope you go very well with it!

-CROsoft
 :)

I've got QBASIC if you don't have it. [email protected]
I'd give you the link to where i got it (on the net) but i forgot

I've downloaded quite a few GUIs written in QB, so you could start there, that's where I'm going to start.

If you havn't started on any language yet, then Qbasic is probably the best to get an idea of programming with. Because you can not actually make an OS with Qbasic, you would then be best to move on to C or Assembly. Qbasic is one of the easiest languages, and is the one that a lot of people start with.

I just finished learning QBASIC....it's GR8. I'd defininately get my feet wet in it if I were you, if you havn't already. Personally, I started with GW-[basic], it made learning Q a lot easier.

Qbasic has a very good help file with it for all the different commands

I quite disagree. The QB help file sucks.
I've got quite a few tutorials I'm going to load onto my website here in about a week or two (It will be on http://www.geocities.com/jsgwbasic/qbasic/tutorials.htm).

If you have a Win95 CD, search it for Qbasic.exe .

If you don't really know any lanuage yet, I would highly recomend that you start with QBasic because it's fairly easy to learn, and most of what you learn can be applied to C/C++. A good place for QBasic tutorials are where else but:

http://www.qbasic.com

K.J.