[comp.unix.internals] Can you recommend a good OS book?

curlandm@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Matt Curland) (06/21/91)

The class I'm taking uses Tanenbaum's _Operating Systems Design
and Implementation_. I had a class which used another book by
Tanenbaum, _Structured Computer Organization_, which I found very
hard to follow. I can't explain it exactly but it seems like I 
had to read every paragraph over and over before it made sense.
I'm immediately running into the same problem with this OS book.
(If you're out there Mr. Tanenbaum, no offense intended...)

OK, maybe it's just me, but if anyone out there knows of a real 
good, clear book on OS's, particularly Unix or the like, I'd 
really appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks very much,

Matt Curland.. .  .   .    .     .       .         curlandm@prism.cs.orst.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________

jasonc@bmerh653.bnr.ca (Jason Chen) (06/21/91)

	Try "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operatine
System" by Leffler, Mckusick, Karels, and Quarterman (ISBN 0-201-06196-1).
There is a answer book for the book.  Another book is "The Design of the 
UNIX Operating System" by Bach (ISBN 0-13-201799-7).

Jason

Jason X.G. Chen        Dept. 1B84,                        "WHY???"
Ph:  (613) 763-4844    Bell-Northern Research Ltd.,   	  
Fax: (613) 763-2202    P.O. Box 3511, Station C,       	   -Ancient Primate
Email: jasonc@bnr.ca   Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Y 4H7 	Question

fdm@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM (Frank D. Malczewski) (06/22/91)

In article <1991Jun21.145635.21731@bmers145.bnr.ca> jasonc@bmerh653.bnr.ca (Jason Chen) writes:
>	Try "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operatine
>System" by Leffler, Mckusick, Karels, and Quarterman (ISBN 0-201-06196-1).
>There is a answer book for the book.  Another book is "The Design of the 
>UNIX Operating System" by Bach (ISBN 0-13-201799-7).


I believe something a little more basic was what is being sought.
In terms of basic OS books, try the one by Deitel on for size; it may or
may not, however, be adequate for what is wanted unix-wise.  Also, the dinosaur
book (which I've not read) by Petersen (?) among others is supposed to be
good (maybe better than Deitel -- it may be more comprehensive).  Again, I am
not certain of its unix coverage.

--Frank Malczewski                        (fdm@wlv.imsd.contel.com)

dclark@b11.ingr.com (Dave Clark) (06/22/91)

curlandm@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Matt Curland) writes:

>OK, maybe it's just me, but if anyone out there knows of a real 
>good, clear book on OS's, particularly Unix or the like, I'd 
>really appreciate hearing about it.

Try the following:

	Deitel, H. M., Operating Systems, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, 1990.
	ISBN 0-201-18038-3.

Although it is challenging in places, it provides a good introduction to
OS concepts and some good case studies to back them up.  Case studies in
the second edition include Unix, OS/2, MS-DOS, Macintosh, VM, and MVS.
It has sections on networking, RISC, and parallel processing.  It's a good
all-around reference, too.

>Thanks very much,

>Matt Curland.. .  .   .    .     .       .         curlandm@prism.cs.orst.edu
>_____________________________________________________________________________

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gnn@heisenberg.Berkeley.EDU (George Neville-Neil) (06/22/91)

Hi Folks,

	IMHO if you want a good general book on OS's that are 
"unix like" then get "Operating System Design:  The Xinu Approach" 
by Douglas E. Comer from Prentice Hall.

	My OS class used it and I enjoyed it enough that I just
read it liek a novel.  I have found all of Mr. Comer's books to be
of similar quality and always recommend them when I can.

	In the case of more specific "design" type books then the 4.3 book 
from McKusick, Karels, Leffler and Quaterman is excelent as is the System
V book from Bach.

				Later,
				George


-- 
George Neville-Neil      		Kinky is as kinky does.
gnn@mammoth.berkeley.edu 

Life is like a sewer, you get out of it what you put into it.  -- T. Lehrer

jasonc@bmerh653.bnr.ca (Jason Chen) (06/25/91)

In article <1991Jun21.185214.10826@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> fdm@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM (Frank D. Malczewski) writes:
>
>I believe something a little more basic was what is being sought.
>In terms of basic OS books, try the one by Deitel on for size; it may or
>may not, however, be adequate for what is wanted unix-wise.  Also, the dinosaur
>book (which I've not read) by Petersen (?) among others is supposed to be
>good (maybe better than Deitel -- it may be more comprehensive).  Again, I am
>not certain of its unix coverage.
>
>--Frank Malczewski                        (fdm@wlv.imsd.contel.com)

	Deitel's book is pretty good as a 2nd yesr OS course text, and it
does cover UNIX as a case study (in a very basic way).  The dinosaur book
is very much same as Deitel's book, it also covers UNIX.  There is a book
called "The logical Desgin of Operating System" by Shaw(?), it's also one
of those 2nd year OS course text.  All these gives general coverage on 
OS construction technics.

Jason
Jason X.G. Chen        Dept. 1B84,                        "WHY???"
Ph:  (613) 763-4844    Bell-Northern Research Ltd.,   	  
Fax: (613) 763-2202    P.O. Box 3511, Station C,       	   -Ancient Primate
Email: jasonc@bnr.ca   Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Y 4H7 	Question

john@gna.axis-design.fr (John Hughes) (06/25/91)

In article <1991Jun21.045146.2380@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> curlandm@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Matt Curland) writes:


   The class I'm taking uses Tanenbaum's _Operating Systems Design
   and Implementation_. ...

   OK, maybe it's just me, but if anyone out there knows of a real 
   good, clear book on OS's, particularly Unix or the like, I'd 
   really appreciate hearing about it.

OK, I guess this is not the response you want, but I'd recommend, as a real
clear, complete and well written book:

	OPERATING SYSTEMS,
	design and implementation.

By a certain A. S. Tannenbaum.

It's not the book I was taught with, but it's the best thing I've seen
since I got into this stupid business (August 1977).

-- 
--
John Hughes,
	11 rue Castex, F-75004 Paris, FRANCE.
		bespoke fax publishing systems while-U-wait.

stripes@eng.umd.edu (Joshua Osborne) (06/26/91)

In article <1991Jun24.193409.3382@bmers145.bnr.ca> jasonc@bmerh653.bnr.ca (Jason Chen) writes:
[...]
>	Deitel's book is pretty good as a 2nd yesr OS course text, and it
>does cover UNIX as a case study (in a very basic way).  The dinosaur book
>is very much same as Deitel's book, it also covers UNIX.  There is a book
>called "The logical Desgin of Operating System" by Shaw(?), it's also one
>of those 2nd year OS course text.  All these gives general coverage on 
>OS construction technics.

"The logical Desgin of Operating Systems" is by Bic and Shaw.  I used it in
a 400-level OS class (I think the only UofM OS classes are 107 (intro to
Unix), 412 (Write a simple OS for a IBM PC), and 415 (Read lots of cool OS
papers); 412 is useful, 415 is just plain fun).

I learned more from the Bic and Shaw book then the BSD book (this may just
be because I knew how Unix worked, and read *tons* of papers on it before I
got my copy of the BSD book).  They cover types of IPC and locking that are
not implmented in Unix.  Same for some other topics.  Intresting stuff.
They also payed alot more attention to multiple processers (since BSD doesn't
run on any MPs [just BSD derived systems] I didn't expect the BSD book to say
much).
-- 
           stripes@eng.umd.edu          "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
"CNN is the only nuclear capable news network..."
    - lbruck@eng.umd.edu (Lewis Bruck)