It's recently been a year since I started working on my pet OS project, and I often end up looking backwards at what I have done, wondering what made things difficult in the beginning. One of my conclusions is that while there's a lot of documentation on OS development from a technical point of view, more should be written about the project management aspect of it. Namely, how to go from a blurry "I want to code an OS" vision to either a precise vision of what you want to achieve, or the decision to stop following this path before you hit a wall. This article series aims at putting those interested in hobby OS development on the right track, while keeping this aspect of things in mind.
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Member since:2010-03-08
The way I interpret this "early optimization is the root of all evil" quote, it reads that one should not prioritize optimization above more important concerns the first time which code is written.
If there's no compromise to make, then I agree that it's possible to optimize right from the first time, or even at the design stage.
But what I was trying to point out is that it's relatively easy to optimize well-written code, as soon as it is sufficiently flexible by design (i.e. we can optimize without breaking function calls or thing like that). So one should not worry too much about optimization too early.
Good cement dries slowly, so to speak.
Edited 2011-01-30 10:00 UTC
Member since:2005-12-31
Once the whole thing works, the "cement" has already begun to dry, so to speak.
You shouldn't do *anything* up-front except writing a prototype to get feedback. Then you'll see what you did wrong, including performance issues. If "drying cement" keeps you from fixing problems, your project will have much more serious issues than performance.
Member since:2011-01-28
"You shouldn't do *anything* up-front except writing a prototype to get feedback. Then you'll see what you did wrong, including performance issues."
I don't think anybody here was referring to the prototype. Never the less, if your prototype is functional enough that it can be used for performance analysis, then it seems to me that you've already put in a significant investment, no?
In any case, if you believe in building a separate prototype and using that for performance analysis, then you really ought to agree with me that planning for an efficient design up front is important since that's essentially what a prototype is. This way you can analyze what works and performs well BEFORE you get too far into development of the production code.
"If 'drying cement' keeps you from fixing problems, your project will have much more serious issues than performance."
What is that supposed to mean?
I think I've made a strong case on why planning for efficiency early on is important, sometimes more so than optimizing later on. It doesn't really matter if I'm right or not because it flies against the tide of authoritative people who say the exact opposite. In the end, no matter how much merit my argument actually holds, I know that I've lost.
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move."A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane."MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Member since:
2011-01-28
"The first time code is written, the primary priority of a developer should not be speed, but cleanness, maintainability, and getting it to work."
I don't disagree with the order of priorities here. But I do believe efficiency should have a larger role up front than your suggesting.
Once the whole thing works, the "cement" has already begun to dry, so to speak.