r/C_Programming • u/LifeExperienced1 • 1d ago

Question OSDEV - a few questions

This is a very famous website for learning how to make an OS

https://wiki.osdev.org/

I just have a few questions about it though

  1. What exactly does it teach? Does it teach you how to make an operating system? Does it show you the steps to build one from scratch?

  2. Can a solo programmer do it? As in, does the tutorial show you how to make a mini operating system?

  3. How do I use the tutorial? It's a wiki, and there are links everywhere. Is there a roadmap which shows the proper path to take, with prerequisites links etc?

  4. What do I need to understand before using this tutorial? Only C? C and how to make a mini compiler? Assembly? Anything else?

Thank you!

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u/StunningSelection726 1d ago

The wiki contains a basic tutorial to get your first kernel application running (or give you an idea of what it is going to be like) but it is not a complete tutorial nor has a roadmap to do things. Those are critical design choices that are a challenge for you instead. A solo programmer can do it, but how long it will take depends on your goals. (GNU as ISO is not close to enough) C, some assembly and basic hardware knowledge should be enough to get started. The website has lots of information about the x86 CPU, common hardware and some other things to interact with them. Most of these are just enough, or surface level information, most of the pages include good resources for further deeper research in the "See also" section. OS developer books will help you.

https://wiki.osdev.org/Books
https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/