should we create an OS development magazine?

Steve the Pirate · Post by **Steve the Pirate** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:53 pm

A blog is actually a great idea, but I'd still like to do a magazine.

tsp · Post by **tsp** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:30 am

I haven't followed this topic very closely but instead of own magazine or blog why don't you just use your work effort to update the OSDev wiki to contain the material you have in your mind?

JamesM · Post by **JamesM** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:41 am

tsp wrote:I haven't followed this topic very closely but instead of own magazine or blog why don't you just use your work effort to update the OSDev wiki to contain the material you have in your mind?

Because a wiki is completely different from a magazine. They require completely different styles of writing - factual and concise vs. creative.

jgraef · Post by **jgraef** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:16 am

Hi,

I would really like to have a magazine, it's just nicer and if you print it out you have something to read when you are offline. But maybe for coordinating it is a good idea to use an IRC channel or a mailing list.
Is there anyone responsible for the magazine or how should we organize? I really get interested in this thing with time

Are there any articles in for the first issue yet? If not I'd just start with my article about VFS.

JamesM · Post by **JamesM** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:06 am

Yayyak is head editor, I believe. All enquiries go to his good dear self.

lukem95 · Post by **lukem95** » Wed May 21, 2008 1:16 pm

i think the VFS article would be well received

JackScott · Post by **JackScott** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:37 pm

Yeah for the moment I'm doing stuff, with the help of B.E.

I apologise for the slip in release time... my life got a bit complex last week. Should be out this week.

Steve the Pirate · Post by **Steve the Pirate** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:24 pm

Hey Yayyak, did you get the picture I emailed to you two days ago?

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:02 am

*bump* anything happening?

JackScott · Post by **JackScott** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:59 am

http://system-call.org/issues/2008-01.pdf

Thanks to all involved. Sorry for the epic lateness.

Edit: Fanfare? What's that?

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:56 am

great read.

just a few gramatical errors;
in Compiler Defined: "Most of the compiler convert.." should be "compilers"

in the last column of the first page of Memory Managment: Disgress should be Digress.

thats all I could find through one pass.

I really liked the compiler article, i look forward to the other parts.

suthers · Post by **suthers** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:19 am

Good read, quite liked the format
Jules

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:34 am

I notice this seems to crash xpdf-3.02pl2, you have to manually jump to page 3... quite odd.

Still, nice work... for starters.

lukem95 · Post by **lukem95** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:47 am

yeah, looks like a good first issue.

the format was slightly hard to follow during the FAT article (just columns in wierd places) but it was a good read

ucosty · Post by **ucosty** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:50 am

First let me say congratulations for a successful release. I'm reading it at the moment and it is quite informative. Let me give a +1 of something to the contributors.

Now on to the "constructive" criticism.

(to be fair my comments are mostly focused on the layout).

1. The columns
The columns have too few words per line make it a bit weird to read. The large font size also makes the page look cramped. This could probably be improved by shrinking the font size and increasing the spacing between columns a little.

2. Text flow
On the first page of "Understanding the FAT filesystem" there is a fairly lare diagram which splits the text across the page. Unfortunately it makes reading more awkward than it should because of the readers natural tendancy to go from the bottom of the first column (just above the diagram) to the top of the next column (which happens to be mid sentance).

3. Inconsistent capitalisation
This mostly applies to the front page.

edit: Just thought I'd add something else. The system call logo with the ugly drop shadown on the first page of "Practical compiler development" seems really out of place and quite random. That and it's just ugly.

Anyway - good job with the zine.