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| Developing a basic operating system on the Raspberry Pi |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by robertson on 2012-10-26 21:31:39 |
| "This website is here to guide you through the process of developing very basic operating systems on the Raspberry Pi! This website is aimed at people aged 16 and upwards, although younger readers may still find some of it accessible, particularly with assistance. More lessons may be added to this course in time." From the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, one of the institutions behind the Raspberry Pi. Amazing resource. |
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| Umm... |
| By whartung on 2012-10-26 22:19:34 |
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This is about blinking an LED and interacting the a frame buffer. All nice and such, but it has nothing to do with an operating system. |
 - Score: 1 |
| RE: Umm... |
| By Macrat on 2012-10-26 23:40:55 |
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I bet you would love the Sun SPOT. :-) http://www.sunspotworld.com/ |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Umm... |
| By Morgan on 2012-10-27 01:20:36 |
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Seems legit to me. An introduction to bare metal programming on an easy to acquire piece of hardware. Or do you expect people to write pseudo operating systems in high level languages right out of the gate? That would be a nice thought experiment but would have little to do with real operating system development. |
| - Score: 4 |
| What is... |
| By Soulbender on 2012-10-27 03:58:58 |
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...a Respberry? Please fix the spelling. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE: Umm... |
| By BeamishBoy on 2012-10-27 05:32:24 |
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> This is about blinking an LED and interacting the a frame buffer. All nice and such, but it has nothing to do with an operating system. Go back and read the article again. This captures - in a very, very simplistic manner - several characteristics that one would associate with an operating system: [*] Low-level programmatic control of hardware. [*] Direct output to a graphical display. [*] Extensibility via the provision of a CLI. This really is quite an impressive use of the RPi and certainly qualifies as an operating system, albeit a toy one. Given that my first introduction to computing was with a BBC Micro many years ago, it's great to see that Cambridge is continuing its great tradition of introducing the fundamentals of computing to children and teenagers. I get a genuine kick out of walking down Thomson Avenue each and every morning on my way to work knowing that there are people inside the Gates building whose work is going to inspire the next generation of kids to study computer science. |
| - Score: 4 |
| Aged 16 and upwards? |
| By biffuz on 2012-10-27 10:11:14 |
| I could grasp this stuff when I was 8 or 9. At 16 I was on the way to design digital and analog electronic boards, and knew enough math to develop a 3D engine. Come on! |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Aged 16 and upwards? |
| By Morgan on 2012-10-27 10:50:00 |
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I've gotten a strong sense from the writings of the folks involved with the Raspberry Pi project that they perceive the current generation of students to be nearly a lost cause. They feel that kids today couldn't care less about programming and circuit design, as long as their shiny iDevices can get a wireless signal. I seriously hope that isn't true, but unfortunately my (admittedly limited) experience with children today bears it out. Instead of playing a real guitar or drums, kids are playing with Rock Band controllers. Instead of building their own kit computers or learning to program with BASIC or JavaScript, they are struggling to understand Legos and improving their score in FPS games on the Xbox. That isn't to say that such activities are a bad thing; rather, it's that the raw desire to learn seems to be diminished by the immediate availability of mass media. Our children have become easily bored consumers with little drive to understand what makes their toys tick. I know that some may consider that a gross generalization but in many ways it rings true. That's one of the things I like about the Raspberry Pi project; its original intent was as a learning tool for anyone of any age, but especially accessible to youths of today. I really wish groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts would seize the opportunity to use it as a bridge into the modern world of hobby computing. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Aged 16 and upwards? |
| By satsujinka on 2012-10-27 14:52:40 |
| That's great for you, but the vast majority aren't in your shoes. Being personally familiar with it, the American school system fails completely at teaching anything even slightly complicated. For example, even though I was put on a "fast track" for math I was never presented with the math to do 3D work. My highschool didn't even offer linear algebra! I probably could have done the electronics courses in high school to learn to design circuits, but that option certainly wasn't available before that, meaning at best the school system started offering this kind of stuff at 14 or 15 (at 8 they were still trying to teach multiplication!) |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: Aged 16 and upwards? |
| By CapEnt on 2012-10-27 17:03:22 |
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To be fair with the current generation, i would say that it worked always that way. Only a very, very, really small segment of the total population ever bothered themselves to understand how anything works unless obliged by their professions after they come to age, regardless of the generation. The difference today is that, as a kid, you have more "off the shelf" fun, as long our parents has the money. I kind of envy the current gen of kids, because even as adult, i want to play with some of their "toys". |
| - Score: 5 |
| RE[2]: Aged 16 and upwards? |
| By Alfman on 2012-10-27 19:13:49 |
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Morgan, +1 I learned so much myself because we had friends that ran a computer business. I worked there (albeit unpaid) while I was in high school. I was able to build my own machines from parts because of that experience. I wonder how many families there are today who don't have a user programmable computer in the house at all? Modern tablets and xboxes aren't anywhere near as good at teaching technology, they are far cry from the likes of one laptop per child, which encouraged software tinkering rather than prohibiting it. |
| - Score: 2 |
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