OSDev.org

Hi everybody,
I'm really amazed by some people on this forum.
I'm also *trying* to learn OS dev, but I think I might be too young... :-\ So I'd like to know: what's your age.
BTW my age is 17

I am 17 years old

If you want you can start to develop an OS with me.

hello,
there is no connection between age and PROGRAMMING SKILLS. I don't know if you remember, but around 1995 a teen (13yrs) created a solution to the year 2000 bug in USA!!!
What you need is to read on Hardware architectures, assembly and a high level language of your choice ie C/C++, Pascal etc.
then get info and books on OS programming!
I'm 24 but started reading about computers when i was 15yrs ;D

Well, I am 28 and have been programming since I was about 9/10. I started on basic (as everybody does!) and was doing Z80 assembly by the time I was 11. I switched to 65C12 assembly by the time I was 13 (got a Acorn computer, fantastic bit of kit!) and started coding in Pascal/Forth/C/Cobol basically whatever I could get my hands on!!

I had switched to PC's full time by the time I was 17 or 18 and I then wrote my first OS (well attempted to) and did what everybody does at first, try and get a GUI and splashscreen loading before even writing a scheduler or memory manager!! Obviously this attempt was doomed, now 10 years on I feel I know enough to attempt again and am actually finding the whole exercise relatively easy and bags of fun.

Which all goes to show...be patient, its taken me 18 years of learning before I feel I know enough to tackle an OS project with any kind of chance of success!!

Oh, and another thing. Don't try and write an OS in a team or group. It's doomed to failure. Stay focused on your own and if it gets to a sufficiently advanced stage then ask people to come on board.

Im 19 but started trying to write an OS when i was 16 ie i just read **** loads about them and came up with documentation on how things where gonna work. I didn't really start doing any till i was 18. I wanted to make my own OS well before i was 16 though and started learning about computers before i was 16 to in fact i started learning when i was born . Im not joking when i was late for my christining my mum found me on my Dad's lap at the old BBC.

Peter

around 1995 a teen (13yrs) created a solution to the year 2000 bug in USA!!!

What, they decided to use 4 digits to represent years instead of 2?

Wow, I'm impressed

Most of you are around my age. Cool.

Then I'd like to ask a new question:
How did you learn to make an OS ?
And do you have any suggestions for a noob?

Well...here are some suggestions:

Start by learning with someone elses code. Test with that code. And what Operating System are you using mainly? Different OSes have different powers that restrict or help your OS development. If you use linux, I have a installer and compiling script for FritzOS, you can learn from that. It has some code that is sort-of well commented. I am working on a port of the installer/compiling script to DOS/Windows...

There are many tutorials online.

Here's how a OS works(at least mine):

Put FritzOS floppy in, reboot.

BIOS loads the first sector of the floppy, the bootsector. Then the bootsector I made loads some more stuff off the disk, the C Kernel and assmebly language 2nd stage loader. Then the bootsector sets protected mode, a mode where the processor protects the computer, giving the OS full control. Then the bootsector loads the 2nd stage loader. My second stage loader loads a new GDT, a better one than the one in the bootsector. Then the second stage loader switches to the C/C++ kernel. Now, the C kernel prints messages on the screen and lets you type in anything for a example of what I programed.

That's basicly what a beginning OS will work like.

I'm 34. I got involved in programming originally in my senior year of high school (Applesoft BASIC) and became interested in both language design and OS design around 1989. Up until now, I have done very little work on either, but I'm presently experiencing a very long (and hopefully soon to end) period of unemployment, which has given me quie a bit of time to work on things...

im 16. only bene reading about computers for 1 year

I'm a 22 year old Ph.D. student from RPI http://www.rpi.edu. I've been interested in OS development since I got Linux for the first time (around 16) but I've never gotten around to writing my own. But I have created some bootsector code.

-Justin

i'm currently 23 and graduated in comp. science, working on the OS battlefield since i'm about 17 (but well, i must admit that my job at that age was far to look like an OS ... just a buggy bootsector and an auwful GUI )

programming skillz and age seems correlated imho, unless if you are comfortable enough with english, math and computer architectures when you are 14 -- but this is unlikely to be the case for most people. BTW, most of the literature you need to understand the concepts is available from high school libraries only (though Internet and Linux may have changed this)

i'm 15, been programming about a year. dont have to much resembling an OS now but a shabby boot sector that dosn't quite work yet.

I don't think age really matters in OS dev or programming. Some of the brightest programmers out there are ~16.

I'm 15, started on my OS when I was 14. Been programming since I was 12 though. I think as long as you know how to program fairly well, you can code and OS.

K.J.