jthomas@nmsu.edu (James Thomas) (01/09/91)
Hi all, I've been following comp.os.minix for a couple of months now, and looked through Warren Toomey's list of long articles (thanks!), and find a dearth of postings (or is it "don't find" :-( on using minix for teaching operating systems (wasn't that what it was for ;-). I saw one article recently and found one in the long article list :-( There is one comment in Glen Overby's information sheet (thanks!). 1) "P-H has granted permission to bona fide universities to copy the software for use in courses" (from Glen). "You can easily make your own listing of the missing pieces" (from the 1.5 Reference Manual). There's no copyrite on the individual files. Is it legit for us to print a copy of the source, take same to Kinko's, and tell the students to buy it there? The book is out of date; the reference manual doesn't seem to be sold separately from the program. How do people accomplish using minix for teaching??? :-) 2) "YOU MAY NOT (a) COPY THE PRINT MATERIAL IN THIS PACKAGE" (from the license agreement for 1.5). This is perfectly reasonable from P-H's point of view. The book is out of date. How do people give their students information on how to use the system??? Has anyone done their own writeup that they would be willing to share? 3) Other war stories? Thanks, Jim Thomas
k%latech@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Kevin P. Dankwardt) (01/10/91)
I assign several Minix related projects each year. I always discuss the code in the book and then tell the students to check the online code to make sure that the code they write will work. I find using the code in the book quite useful in showing students actual code that accomplishes operating system functions. Whether the code is or is not the most recent version is not critical. From what I can tell, however, the essential approaches and ideas have not changed. There has always been a need to look at source on disk anyway since everything was not included in the book. For example, "sendrec.s" is an important file when you want the students to understand the sequence of events from a system call in a user program to the eventual accomplishment of the request by Minix. Regards, Kevin Dankwardt k@latech.edu
luis@bonito.tds.kth.se (Luis Barriga) (01/21/91)
-The book is not consistent with the last version of MINIX. Even if a new edition appears it would soon afterwards become old. -The manuals for version 1.5 are not sold separately, but only with the diskettes for a price of $120. If MINIX is to be used for teaching , should each student buy one MINIX set? - Many software companies are aware of this fact and permit, for educational purposes, the copying of user manuals. PH is formally halting in this aspect. Was MINIX intended for educational purposes?. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Luis Barriga + The Royal Institute of Technology + + + Dep. Computer systems (TDS) + + + P.O. Box 700 43 + + e-address: luis@tds.kth.se + S-100 44 Stockholm + + + SWEDEN + -------------------------------------------------------------------------