From: "Arik Funke" <arik DOT funke AT gmx DOT de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Writing an OS
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 22:14:35 +0200
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Thomas J. Hruska schrieb in Nachricht
<3 DOT 0 DOT 6 DOT 16 DOT 19990425212428 DOT 2b4f22b4 AT pop DOT detroit DOT crosswinds DOT net>...
>At 07:06 PM 4/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>The first thing you might want to do is join the FreeDOS Kernel Developers
>list (and download FreeDOS).  <http://www.freedos.org/>.
>Next visit the ReactOS (a.k.a. FreeWinNT) web site and join the appropriate
>mailing lists.  <http://www.sid-dis.com/ReactOS/>.
>
>Finally, visit the GAZ web site.  This site contains not only vital
>documents on how to write generic OSes, but it also has links to over 200
>other OSes on the internet.  My favorite is TOPSY...an OS on a JAVA VM.
><http://gaz.cjb.net/>.

>Now, I mean no offense, but I am only offering my personal opinion.  Even
>with the best boot loader in the world, OS programming is a "black art."
>There is little documentation for 16-bit mode OSes, and even less for
>32-bit OSes.  You have to scrap and save every tidbit you get your hands
>on.  Not to mention, every OS works differently.  There are NO debuggers,
>NO libraries, nothing at all to help you out.  It is just between your OS
>and the processor.  I also hate to burst your bubble, but you can't use the
>printf() statement in an OS unless you write your own low level version.
>On top of this, you have to write disk drive controller code, HD controller
>code, figure out where everything will go in memory, etc.
>From what I can tell, you have a long way to go before you are ready to
>write an OS.  I have saved you months of searching with those three links,
>but I'm leaving the rest up to you.


Thank you for the good anwers. You are right it's a lot of work, but I won't
be alone with this work. Some people will help me. And the Web is wide and I
hope to get answers in futher from diffrent persons, too.

First I'll visit the diffrent adresses. But two of the three I've already
visited: ReactOS and freeOS

Thank's for all the answers and tips!!!

With best regardes
    Arik Funke

PS: Sorry for the english, but 3 1/2 years aren't so much.