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Required Knowledge: Difference between revisions
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# '''Programming experience''': Learning about programming with an OS project is considered a bad idea. Not only should you know the language in which you will be developing inside out, you should also be familiar with version control, debugging, etc. - in short, you should have written quite a few user-space programs in that language successfully before trying OS development.
# '''Programming Practices''': You should know how to write both code and user documentation, and be prepared to carefully document all aspects of your code and design, even if the project is purely for your personal use. Also, you should learn and use a suitable [[Code Management]] practices, including setting up and using an off-site repository (e.g., Savannah, GitHub, GitLab, Heroku). These two practices alone will - not may, but ''will'' - save you a great deal of trouble in the future, ''if'' you follow them.
# '''UNIX experience''': You will soon notice that many of the tools used in OS development are developed for Unix, and later ported over to Windows. The Linux kernel is often used as reference or example for how things can be done, and many of the hobby operating systems have some resemblance to Unix. Having experience with the Unix command line (preferably bash or ksh) is a very important requirement. ([[Cygwin]] provides an easy-to-install Unix command line for Windows.). If you haven't, go ahead and use Linux or a BSD for a while - for Windows users, this can be accomplished quite easily by using a [[Emulators|virtualizer]] (see below) to host a virtual system, without the need to re-partition your home system. For macOS users, you can simply use the Terminal - macOS is built on a Unix variant kernel (a combination of the Mach and BSD kernels), so as long as you have
# '''Toolchain''': You must know the behavioral details of your compiler, assembler, linker, and make utility. You should know what do the emitted warnings and errors mean. You should have the documentation of the tools you use at hand, and refer to them ''before'' asking the community. Rest assured that any possible beginner's question about [[GCC]], [[GAS|GNU as]], [[NASM]], [[LD|GNU ld]], [[Visual Studio]] and [[GRUB]] has been answered twice over. Search before you ask.
# '''Emulators and Virtualizers''': Familiarity with tools such as [[Bochs]], [[VirtualBox]], [[QEMU]], or [[Microsoft_Virtual_PC|Virtual PC]] is key to having a reasonable turn-around in development, and provide a buffer between your real hardware and your test system. While these can be learned for the specific purpose of OS dev, you will certainly want to be aware of what they are and where to get them before beginning an OS project.
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