daleske@cbdkc1.UUCP ( John Daleske x4335 3S324W RAA) (08/25/86)
Is anyone out there using OS-9 as a teaching tool in CS? If I were teaching an operating systems course, I'd be very tempted to tell all the students to go out and buy a CoCo III with OS-9. OS-9 is a very good example of many important CS ideas--Certainly more, save for horrible cautionary examples, than about any other microcomputer OS around. (AmigaDOS being the sole exception I'm aware of.) OS-9's modular structure lets one give students non-toy assignments, and serves as an example of good design. (How many other OSs would it be reasonable to ask students to write a file manager or device driver for? Certainly not Unix, which has benefitted so from university exposure-- just try to get a university computer center to let students look at source! With OS-9's reasonable interface design, one would need only some sample listings of the kind readily available in Dibble & Puckett.) James Jones, speaking only for myself. (I do have this idea for a product--DISCLAIMO, which levels the ground for one mile around your terminal so there's nobody left to share your opinion...:-)