Christ Centered Gamer

So...I have a Computer Science question of sorts.

Next semester, I get to take a lab science about Electronics, Calculus II, Object-Oriented Programming, and a few other courses. I have the option to take a Databases course, or an Operating Systems course. The Databases course is offered all year, but the Operating Systems course is Spring-Only. Normally, I'd go with OS simply because it makes more sense. However, I'm balancing it with a Lab Science, Calculus II, and OOP. Plus, I'm currently in Computer Organization (Which deals with Assembly, structure, and architecture), and am struggling through it. Our current assignment has me stumped, and I fear that taking OS (Which supposedly has elements of Comp Org in it) alongside those courses could be committing academic suicide.

Any thoughts?

Further, my Comp Org assignment deals with input handling, and using the Interrupter. My teacher failed to explain it very well, so I'm completely clueless on how to proceed. The general gist of the assignment is to write a library in Assembly to handle keyboard input. The library has to consist of four functions, which open the keyboard for use, check if input is available, get the character (Don't do anything with it, just pass it), and close the keyboard. Input is stored in an array of size 15, which means the function to determine if input is available returns false if the buffer is full. The issue for me is that I have no idea how to even begin, especially since our teacher was super vague about the Interrupt Service Routine, and whether we were supposed to use the default he provides or make our own. Any general tips and/or thoughts on using the Interrupter in this manner, and designing the library? I feel like I am capable of programming this, just that I have no clue on where to even begin.

Sorry for the long-winded posts.

Deepfreeze32 wrote:So...I have a Computer Science question of sorts.

Next semester, I get to take a lab science about Electronics, Calculus II, Object-Oriented Programming, and a few other courses. I have the option to take a Databases course, or an Operating Systems course. The Databases course is offered all year, but the Operating Systems course is Spring-Only. Normally, I'd go with OS simply because it makes more sense. However, I'm balancing it with a Lab Science, Calculus II, and OOP. Plus, I'm currently in Computer Organization (Which deals with Assembly, structure, and architecture), and am struggling through it. Our current assignment has me stumped, and I fear that taking OS (Which supposedly has elements of Comp Org in it) alongside those courses could be committing academic suicide.

Any thoughts?

What level is the DB course? I ask because if it's reasonably low-level I'd definitely go that route... Not only because it would probably balance better with your other classes, but because Databases are a much more widely used skillset that will server you better in the long run unless you intend for your career to focus on OS design and implementation. I'm a web developer and even in that I use my database skills and for much more than simple form data persistence.

Deepfreeze32 wrote: Further, my Comp Org assignment deals with input handling, and using the Interrupter. My teacher failed to explain it very well, so I'm completely clueless on how to proceed. The general gist of the assignment is to write a library in Assembly to handle keyboard input. The library has to consist of four functions, which open the keyboard for use, check if input is available, get the character (Don't do anything with it, just pass it), and close the keyboard. Input is stored in an array of size 15, which means the function to determine if input is available returns false if the buffer is full. The issue for me is that I have no idea how to even begin, especially since our teacher was super vague about the Interrupt Service Routine, and whether we were supposed to use the default he provides or make our own. Any general tips and/or thoughts on using the Interrupter in this manner, and designing the library? I feel like I am capable of programming this, just that I have no clue on where to even begin.

Sorry for the long-winded posts.

Meh that wasn't too long winded.

If I had to do something like that I'd start by doing a little research on the system's addresses and ports, since, if I understand this right, the keyboard is going to be mapped to specific range of port addresses. That's probably going to be the hardest part to plan ahead because it's the part that requires you to interact with other facilities you don't directly control. There should be a set of available system calls through your operating system that allow you to access those things by way of the OS API, although I'm not an assembly programmer so I'm only guessing on that.

Don Quixote?

Chozon1 wrote:Don Quixote?

Maybe... he might be an ancestor of mine...

Weird.

You tilt at power lines?

Of course.

Don't you? O_o

Not since I discovered 18th century style statues. They, I feel, are much more deserving of the wrath of mine invincible arm.

Gragglepants?

They don't make 'em in my size.

I just sewed two pairs together for me. They fit like a nightmare.

Kirby?

Oh please no...

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

How can you not like the little puffball?

That's like asking "How can you not like Easter Peeps?"

*shudder*

...um...yeah...hate those things...

We'll do all our thinking out loud, and wait for daylight?

Talking in one's sleep is not good if they've got secrets to hide...

Everyone has secrets.

When did "keeping a secret" become "tell only a few people you can trust"? O_o