ReactOS Forum

Although Temps had access to source code (and some Temps and "Blue-badges" downloaded it) there is limited utility in 30 million lines of undocumented code. The best grounding on NT (I did support) was "Inside Windows NT" (the one with Helen Custer) and "Showstopper" by Zachary. And "Inside Windows 2000" by Russinovich. Their systeminternals web site used to have great information on Windows architecture but less so since MS bought it.

What?

i think he is asking about NT books to read.
Well...my 2 favourites books are:

Newbies in NT as me:
"Operating systems concepts" http://www.amazon.com/Operating-System- ... 0471694665
This is quite nice to understand how an OS behaves, how an OS can behave, and some code and exercises.Also at the end they focus in XP(Nt architecture).Recommended for a guy with 0 knowledge about what an OS really is.

"Windows internals 4th edition" This is the book for excellence, of course you can go directly to it, it has exercises too, it is focused in XP architecture and it is a book for reference. There is a 5th edition, but Alex recommends this 4th since 5th just adds some Vista kernel stuff.

with this books you have for at least 2 months

After reading them you can focus your learning in the differents NT architecture parts as Kernel, Memory Management, Subsystems,HAL,GDI,etc...and each part has its own books...

I've provided Windows support for many years and those were the books that helped me understand the operating systems design decisions. The first edition of "Operating Systems Concepts" (1985) sucked, at least in comparison to "Operating System Design and Implementation" by Andrew Tanenbaum (1987) which I would hope that everyone is familiar with. And yes those date back to my pre-windows days.

"Microsoft Windows Internals" (4th Edition) by Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. Great Book. Solomon wrote "Inside Windos NT" (second edition) and they co-authored "Inside Windows 2000". Their website Systeminternals.com has tools that I used(use) to reverse engineer customer problems. (Some of the tools are gone since Microsoft bought their site.) They have a great introduction to Windows Native Mode, where driver and shells load, which seems pertinent to many questions posted re driver support and loading alternate shells.

I will check the new edition of Operating Systems Concepts, there seems to be some major improvements since the edition I looked at. The point of my original note however was that to understand the original programming choices of Windows NT as a whole, readings from the original programmers would be helpful. At least it was to me. I'm of course assuming that you are familiar with VAX and their importance to appreciate David Cutler's contribution to NT. (Since Windows NT was designed around iRMX-11, it would be interesting if HP gave rights to ReactOS as a hedge against Microsoft legal.)

shjacks45 wrote:"Microsoft Windows Internals" (4th Edition) by Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. Great Book.

On a somewhat related note, my copy of Windows Internals (5th Edition) arrived yesterday. I was inspired to buy it in order to more fully understand ReactOS at a lower level.

I'm wondering, though, am I missing out by not having read the 4th Edition, since ReactOS is aiming for Windows Server 2003 compatibility at kernel level?

If i recall correctly 5th edition is Vista focused, but i think it is still based in the 4th edition+addons.Just avoid those pages which says: Vista Only

the 5th edition isn't particularly relevant for reactos as it's based on NT6 and deliberatley makes no attempt to cover any NT5 stuff.
There are of course places which will apply to NT5, but it won't specify this.

You need the 4th edition for reactos as this covers NT5.

Thanks for the advice, Ged. I'll pick up a copy of the 4th edition once I've had a read through the 5th.

On the other hand, if we were to try and update the ROS kernel to be a NT6 kernel, it would come in handy.

As I see, this site makes major contribution into advertising that Russinovich & Solomon's book; everybody here have read it. :)

For some reason, I don't very much like it. The first "Windows Internals" I've read, was about Windows 3.1, author Matt Pietrek; I read it with interest. But that book put me to sleep. :)

hto wrote:As I see, this site makes major contribution into advertising that Russinovich & Solomon's book; everybody here have read it.

That's because, with the exception of the GDI, most of the reactos core is based on that book
The GDI is heavily based on Feng Yuan's book.

I've never said not to buy the 5th Edition, I have no idea what the f*ck you're talking about.

I posted a 5-6 page blog article on why the 5th Edition is awesome and you should buy it.

You can read it http://www.alex-ionescu.com

5th edition is about NT6. ReactOS is NT5. It's why 5th edition is not important for ReactOS.

Pisarz wrote:5th edition is about NT6. ReactOS is NT5. It's why 5th edition is not important for ReactOS.

Alex Ionescu cowrote both. I think he knows better than you.

Pisarz wrote:5th edition is about NT6. ReactOS is NT5. It's why 5th edition is not important for ReactOS.

Did you even read my blog article (btw: I am the co-author of both the book and the ReactOS kernel)?

It explicitly mentions how the 5th Edition fixed errors regarding older editions, and added content of existing Windows technologies that were never previously covered.

Then again, if you can't even read a simple blog article, I can understand why you'd have trouble reading a 1200 page book...