OS Development

I've been studying assembly language for a long long long time, and I want to try OS Development. I've heard of MikeOS it was entirely written in real mode assembly. I looked over the code of MikeOS and now I feel very discouraged. It is a lot of complicated code just for a simple os.

MikeOS - simple x86 assembly language operating system

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michaelkellett over 10 years ago +1

Most OS are not written in assembler but in C or other high level language. To write even a small scheduler type OS in assembler is an odd thing to do since it will make it take longer and it won't be…
johnbeetem over 10 years ago in reply to nick123 +1

Nick Gallagher wrote: Why is C portable and not assembly? An assembly language program only runs on one computer architecture, i.e., one instruction set. You can't run ARM assembly language on x86…
clem57 over 10 years ago in reply to nick123 +1

Yes if they produce a .COM module and assembly inline OK if you are careful.

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0 clem57 over 10 years ago

nick123
Hi, I work with assembler for most of my life and I can say there is no simple OS. It can be cleanly written, but the details of handling hardware is always present. By not going into virtual mode, address relies on segment registers which is uglier than setting up virtualization IMHO. Why? Because you address 64K chunks of code or data and makes this such a challenge. So you see it is relative to what you want to tackle. But to be in real mode you must know how the hardware handles addressing. That is why simple here is a wrong word...
Clem
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0 nick123 over 10 years ago in reply to clem57

Should I make the bootloader in assembly and the kernel in C? I found this website on OSDev, is it good?
BrokenThorn Entertainment
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0 nick123 over 10 years ago in reply to clem57

Should I make the bootloader in assembly and the kernel in C? I found this website on OSDev, is it good?
BrokenThorn Entertainment
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0 clem57 over 10 years ago in reply to nick123

I read just the introduction and it lays a good foundation. If you can follow and understand this, I can see it as a building block toward writing a bootloader. That is a very good goal imho. I will be around if you wish guidance.
A journey starts with one leg forward and a lot of faith,
Clem
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0 clem57 over 10 years ago in reply to nick123

Pick C for now and later rewrite in ASM.
Clem
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