This is interesting ... LoseThos Operating System

[Tekzel]

Now, it is probably the most focused purpose OS I have ever seen. It is an OS that the author describes as a modern day Commodore 64 OS. The entire OS is built on a C compiler and compiles the OS at boot time for the required components to boot, then JITs the rest as needed. Its actually quite fascinating, I have just watched the videos. Part of the fun of the videos for me are listening to the author describe things. He is unintentionally hilarious at times. My favorite snippet so far that absolutely cracked me up was on the video "InstallBoot(): Compiling the kernel" he was talking about setting up a RAM disk and said something like "I have 12 gig, I have nothing better to do than make ram disks...".

Anyway if anyone is interested check it out at http://www.losethos.com/

I am just having a good time listening to his videos in the background. haha.  It is a very interesting project though.

[mouser]

Love it.. It's like an alternate universe combining the past and future, set in the 1950s.

[mouser]

Every programmer who dreamed of writing their own compiler or operating system should watch that video. It's a real hackers delight.. everything created from scratch and for the pure joy of doing so.

[mouser]

For me these things are important reminders that there is real pure joy to be had in creating something yourself -- regardless if someone else has already done it before and better than you.  I'm not saying you can take that approach on all projects -- most of the time the smart thing is to avoid re-inventing the wheel if your goal is to slay a dragon.  But sometimes the real joy of coding can be found in creating something from the ground up with your own hands.

[Tekzel]

For me these things are important reminders that there is real pure joy to be had in creating something yourself -- regardless if someone else has already done it before and better than you.  I'm not saying you can take that approach on all projects -- most of the time the smart thing is to avoid re-inventing the wheel if your goal is to slay a dragon.  But sometimes the real joy of coding can be found in creating something from the ground up with your own hands.

Absolutely, and even if you can't always take that approach, its often good to write something you want just for the fun of it. Even if others have already done it better than you can hope to.

[TucknDar]

Absolutely, and even if you can't always take that approach, its often good to write something you want just for the fun of it. Even if others have already done it better than you can hope to.

Ah, so that's why there are approximately 674346536 IRC clients out there...

[40hz]

Reading this brought a smile to my face:

Motivation: for Making LoseThos:
1986:  I had a book called, "Mapping the Commodore 64," when I was a teenager and it told what
every memory location did.  I hooked-up Radio Shack photo-transistors to my paddle-port and
relays to another port.

I think I spent more time with my trusty copy of Mapping the Commodore 64   than I have with any other book I've owned with the possible exception of Lord of the Rings. That book, plus a subscription to TPUG's marvelous Transactor magazine, and I was ready to do anything with my C64. Boy could you put that little "box of chips" to a lot of different uses. My biggie was a program I wrote (in FORTH supplemented with some assembly code) that let you use an inexpensive Casio keyboard to play musical notes directly through the SID chip. I later adapted it so that you could also input them into the Kawasaki Synthesizer program for playback.

Glad to see the spirit and passion are still alive. You have to admire anyone with the desire to build a small but usable OS from scratch for no other reason that the pure fum of doing so. Brings back memories it does.

[f0dder]

My biggie was a program I wrote (in FORTH supplemented with some assembly code) that let you use an inexpensive Casio keyboard to play musical notes directly through the SID chip.

MOS-6581