ReactOS Forum

After having read these two posts made by Ged and Z98 it seems like pumping out the right programmers from the factory, for ROS is almost an impossible task.

• Universities can't do the job.
• People have to be skilled programmers for a very long time before being qualified to work as kernel devs for ROS.
• You have to know Hardware basics, Assembly and C to qualify as a kernel dev.
• Mostly people with natural talent and the right desire will qualify for this job.

People like this doesn't grow on trees. So I was thinking what can be done to automate the process more efficiently? So that the ROS project doesn't have to rely on luck to catch that superhuman programmer.



Developers>>>
{ This syntax means that I primarily want to address devs in particular. }
You're this superhuman programmer if you would travel back in time and visit yourself when you was 5 years old. How would you shape and drill this younger version of yourself into the superhuman programmer that you're today. I mean what would you say to yourself how would you strategize and plan your self education so that you reach the goal much quicker.



Everybody>>>
Howto clone an army of ROS programmers? So that we don't have to rely on luck waiting for the right programmers to come onboard. I mean persuading all those thousands of Linux kernel devs to come work for ROS for a while won't change the situation right? They speak a totally different language to switch language might take over 10 years even though most of them already know Hardware basics, Assembly and C.

When I say switching language I don't mean programming language both mostly use C. I just meant human spoken language in that sentence as example.



Which universities produces qualified OS devs?

Ged wrote:None, you can't rely on universities to teach you.
If you're serious about developing operating systems then you teach yourself.

Generally, good kernel devs are normally very skilled programmers a long time before they're old enough to go to university.
The ones that aren't have a natural skill and a desire to learn.

source

Z98 wrote:Learning how to program kernels by yourself or even with a book is extremely difficult. First, you'll need a basic understanding of the hardware, such as memory, registers, I/O, and a few other details. Then, you'll need to learn a bit of assembly. Then, you'll need to know how to program in C. I have bits of all three but there's no way I would understand kernel code yet. I would suggest start with C programming. It's actually the easiest of the three, in my opinion. But if you have a good understanding of those three aspects, then you can learn actual OS programming. Yeah, the three above are basically prerequisites.

An army consists not only from generals. There's a lot of work for mere mortals, not only for superhuman beings. :)

I should try and participate. Since I was a child I always liked reinventing the wheel. Which is useless for getting anything practical done though lol. Though reactos is a big wheel and my closest experience is a c++ and a bunch of other useless languages. My original plan was to help by working on the shell get a better understanding of c. Then try my hands at some of the harder stuff.
Time is the hardest part at the moment I have an 8 hour job with a 4 hour commute which hopefully this should change next year. When I hopefully go to uni.

I'm sure there are other programmers here. Maybe before trying to recruit elsewhere we look at what we have here. Even people who know how to program in another language could participate easily. Learning a new language is easy once you know one. Not the low low level stuff, but there is a huge amount of applications in windows. How about an audit of people in the forum and there skills. Some might even have other valuable skills unrelated to programming.

greenie wrote:Since I was a child I always liked reinventing the wheel. Which is useless for getting anything practical done though lol.

How the wheel was invented
I remember this science article from a couple of years ago. It's in swedish I couldn't find an equally good article in english on the Internet.
The important stuff isn't in the text it's in the pictures. Where they show the evolution of the wheel from the cavemen times until modern times.

Picture 1.
The gray thing is supposed to be a block of stone. And the thing below is supposed to be a wooden log.
Cavemen thought of transporting heavy things by using logs.

Picture 2.
Then someone thought of carving the wooden log into skies to transport the block of stone.

Picture 3.
Then someone else thought of combining the above two methods to reduce friction and make things easier.


Well you can follow the pictures and do the math yourself. The point is if people didn't reinvent the wheel so many times. Then all the cars would still run on wooden logs today. And then nobody would be able to reinvent the wheelless wheels a.k.a hoover board.

[ external image ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_ ... the_Clones

hto wrote:An army consists not only from generals. There's a lot of work for mere mortals, not only for superhuman beings.

We need more foot soldiers for the generals to command.
We'll start by bringing cheesecake to please KJK.