Operating system

“ Focusing more on the interlocking standards and specifications that held the operating system's many subcomponents together, rather than the actual components themselves, they created a system that could be quickly modified to suit the tastes of any machine. ”

“ The Vocabulary of this Case Computers and Operating Systems A computer is “a digital information processing device . . . . consist [ing] of central processing components . . . and mass data storage . . . . certain peripheral input/output devices . . . , and an operating system.” Personal computers (“PCs”) are computers designed for use by one person at a time. “ [M] ore powerful, more expensive computer systems known as ‘servers’ . . . are designed to provide data, services, and functionality through a digital network to multiple users.” ”

“ GUIs (graphical user interfaces) like Windows and Macintosh have hastened the process (and indeed it's no secret that it was Microsoft's marketing strategy to use their operating system to make computers easy to use for the average person) . ”

“ New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and delusions as an operating system, an HLL, or even assembler. Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the bare metal', which refers to the arduous work of bit bashing needed to create these basic tools for a new machine. Real bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real development environment. ”

“ Nowadays, like many operating systems, UNIX hides behind a graphical user interface like the X Windows system. Occasionally—and networking is unfortunately one of those occasions— its quirks like file-naming and directory hierarchy peek through.
This Appendix gives you just enough UNIX to avoid some pitfalls and issue commands needed to transfer files. The basic commands you need to know for any system are how to display directories and list the contents of files, how to name files, and how to get help about the system. ”

“ Not all hardware and software are compatible. In fact, hundreds of producers of computer equipment and computer programs are in the market, and there are few across-the-board standards. So it's important to get hardware and software that are compatible.
Software, or the computer programs themselves, are not like records that can be played on any record player. They have to be compatible with the hardware in terms of the programing language used, operating system, size, format, and other factors. ”

“ A silicon chip that is the central, controlling part of the computer.
MINICOMPUTER: A computer that is usually larger, more powerful, and more expensive than a microcomputer, but is smaller than a mainframe in memory and functions.
MODEM (MODulator/ DEModulator) : A device used to attach a computer or one of its devices to a communication line, often a telephone.
OPERATING SYSTEM: A special group of programs which controls the overall operation of a computer system. It mediates between the hardware and the particular software program.
OUTPUT: The information generated by a computer. ”

“ From Multics, through to Unix, Windows and Mac OS, there has been a raft of closed-source operating systems that are licensed to users for corporate profit and which have formed the basis of most people’s interaction with computer systems. ”

“ There should be no source language distinction between true hardware interrupts and those synthesized by an operating system, language extensions, or the user program.
B.8 PARAMETERS B.8.a
There should be a consistent set of rules applicable to all parameters, whether they be for procedures, for types, for exception handling, for parallel processes, for declarations, or for built-in operators. There should be special operations (e.g., array substructuring) applicable only to parameters.
Uniformity and consistency contributes to ease of learning. implementing and using a language ”

“ Though this facility used to be common on memory-limited micros and is still widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular, most UNIX programmers will think of this as an {exec}. Oppose the more modern {subshell}. 2. A series of linked data areas within an operating system or application. `Chain rattling' is the process of repeatedly running through the linked data areas searching for one which is of interest to the executing program. The implication is that there is a very large number of links on the chain. ”

“ Process control at a chemical plant is the canonical example. Such applications often require special operating systems (because everything else must take a back seat to response time) and speed-tuned hardware. 2. adv. In jargon, refers to doing something while people are watching or waiting. "I asked her how to find the calling procedure's program counter on the stack and she came up with an algorithm in real time." ”

“ ISBN 0-201-00650-2) . It described the jump from a set of nice, simple operating systems on the IBM 70xx series to OS/360 on the 360 series. A similar effect can also happen in an evolving system; see Brooks's Law, creeping elegance, creeping featurism. See also Multics, OS/2, X, software bloat.
This version of the jargon lexicon has been described (with altogether too much truth for comfort) as an example of second-system effect run amok on jargon-1....
Node:
secondary damage
, Next:
security through obscurity
, Previous:
second-system effect
, Up:
= S =
secondary damage n. ”

“ Figure 5.18 - LMF assembly sector: Operations. Computer control and communications. The seed computers must be capable of deploying and operating a highly complex, completely autonomous factory system. The original computer must erect an automated production facility, and must be expandable in- order to retain control as the LMF grows to its full "adult" size. The computer control subsystem coordinates all aspects of production, scheduling, operations, repairs, inspections, maintenance, and reporting, and must stand ready to respond instantly to emergencies and other unexpected events. ”

“ Computer control is nominally located at the hub of the expanding LMF disk, and commands in hierarchical fashion a distributed information processing system with sector computers at each node and sector subsystems at the next hierarchical level of control. ”

“ Be sure you try the system you plan to buy. Test run on a sample problem the hardware and software combination you are considering using. See if you think the solutions the computer puts out are what you need. ”

“ Will the windows at least slightly slow down some programs? A word processor may take longer for you to get from one part of your report to another.
3458. Is the program picky about the computers it’ll work with? A window system may need over half a million bytes of RAM and a hard-disk drive storing 5 megabytes. Also, as of this writing, windows seemed geared more to the IBM-style MS-DOS computers than to the older but cheaper CP/M ones. Besides, some companies may not sell windows programs directly to ordinary buyers. ”

“ Your storage devices—tape cassettes, floppy disks, or hard disks—that store computer programs and data, are sometimes called external memory.
The computer system also needs input devices and output devices. Your keyboard is an input device; disk drives and tape drives are also input devices. ”

“ Computer programs that are contained in and control the functioning of a lawfully acquired medical device or system, and related data files, when circumvention is a necessary step to allow the diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of such a device or system. ”

“ On left is an array of 16 analog computers; at right is a large digital data-processing system.
The facility can perform scientific and business tasks simultaneously.
The dictionary also gives us a good clue to the digital computer: “Digital.—Of the fingers or digits.” A digital machine deals in digits, or discrete units, in its calculations. For instance, if we ask it to multiply 2 times 2, it answers that the product is exactly 4. A slide rule, which we have said is an analog device, might yield an answer of 3.98 or 4.02, depending on the quality of its workmanship and our eyesight. ”

“ When you were working on a machine like the TX-0, which came with almost no software, everyone would furiously write systems programs to make programming easier—Tools to Make Tools, kept in the drawer by the console for easy access by anyone using the machine. ”

“ Other analog computers were developed for utility companies to control the dispatching of power to various consumers in the most efficient manner. Again the principle was simply to build a model or analog of an actual physical system and use it to predict the outcome of operation of that system. ”

“ Nowadays, there are version control systems to track the evolution of algorithms and computer programs or changes in scripts. Bitbucket, Git, Subversion, and Mercurial are among the most widely used version-control systems. You should use a standardized name system to identify changes. If you have a paper lab notebook, you should record the name and location of the scripts. Those using electronic lab notebooks can add links to each version of their scripts or programs. ”

“ These analogies in nature are particularly fitting, since the analog computer is at its best in representing a physical system. While we do not generally recognize such homely examples as computers, automatic record-changers, washing machines, electric watt-hour meters, and similar devices are true analogs. ”

“ Notable improvements in the general-purpose computer are doing much to further its use as a technical tool. Present machines do jobs as varied as the following: personnel records, inventorying, pattern determination, missile system checkout, power-plant control, system simulation, navigation, ballistic trajectory computations, and so on. Special computers are also provided now for the engineer ”

“ General Electric Co., Computer Dept.
Tiny ferrite cores like these make up the memory of some computers. Each core stores one “bit” of information.
Until recently, computers have been primarily sequential, or serially operating, machines. As pointed out earlier, the brain operates in parallel and makes up for its slower operating individual parts in this way. Designers are now working on parallel 132operation for computers, an improvement that may be even more important than random-access memory. ”

“ The current distributed processing environment, wherein computer processing capabilities are placed throughout a data information or transmission system, compelled, at a minimum, a re-examination of the definitional structure used to distinguish regulated communications services from unregulated data processing services. ”

“ You needn’t be a computer expert or wrestle with inconveniences like dialing fifteen-digit numbers to reach the main computer. The system explains itself on screen if you want it to, though experienced users can switch off the menus when they’re ready. You ideally don’t have to wade through an instruction manual. The system tells you when you’re tapping out wrong commands. Also, it’s fast. You can start using it in a hurry, and you don’t have to wait more than a few seconds at the most for it to respond to your commands. And you constantly feel in control. ”

“ The Academic Computer It was inevitable that the computer invade, or perhaps “infiltrate” is the better word, our education system. Mark I and ENIAC were university-born and -bred, and early research work was done by many institutions using computers. A logical development was to teach formal courses in using the computer. While application of the machine in mathematical and scientific work came first, its application to business and to the training of executives for such use of the computer was soon recognized. ”

“ Here the machine can hunt for a previous result punched in the tape, read that result, and use it again.
HOW INFORMATION IS MANIPULATED
IN THE MACHINE
The main part of the computing system consists of 27 large frames loaded with relays and wiring, called the computer, or Computer 1 and Computer 2. In this “telephone central station,” all the “phone calls” from one number to another are attended to. There are 8 types of these frames in the computer:
In most but not quite all respects, the two halves, Computer 1 and Computer 2, can compute independently. ”

“ Many embedded computer applications require software that will continue to operate in the presence of faults.... The applications may require the monitoring of sensors, control of equipment displays or operator input processing. They must interface to special peripheral equipment.... Software must sometimes be able to respond at periodic (real time) intervals, to service interrupts within limited times, and to predict computation times.... In many applications..it is necessary to access, manipulate and display large quantities of data. ”

“ Software that bypasses the defined OS interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software. In the IBM PC/MS-DOS world, there is a folk theorem (nearly true) to the effect that (owing to gross inadequacies and performance penalties in the OS interface) all interesting applications are ill-behaved. See also bare metal. Oppose well-behaved, compare PC-ism. See mess-dos. ”