CS208, Wednesday 23 Feb 2022

Masks

• Let's keep them on in this class for the rest of this term.

Notes about the command shell

• Improvements to the assignment
  • Assign it in more than one piece, a couple simple features first
  • Don't mention the "history" feature--it's too far away from "how do processes work?" (or maybe mention it in the context of "cool zero-point features" only)
  • Be super-explicit about "command1 | command2" not meaning "arbitrary-length pipelines"
  • What additional help to include up-front?
    • More time in class on piping
    • Rethink initialize() and cleanup() in the skeleton program
    • 7-9 days total
  • What else?
• Thinking about difficult software development tasks
  • Implement and test in the smallest increments possible
  • Backing up your code carefully between increments (version control software!)
  • Incremental development is harder/more dangerous when you keep having to work on the same code over and over; easy to break what was working before
  • Perfection isn't possible; triage and prioritization are essential (this is not just about software--think about the sustainability of your life)
  • Experimenting outside your project code is often worth the time. If you understand the tools, the code based on the tools is much easier to write.
  • Starting late: very common but mostly ineffective
• What's on your mind?

Remaining work

• Buffer overflow assignment
• Takehome final

Race conditions

• Shared memory
• Uh-oh
• What to do?

Virtual memory

• Rough idea
• Details coming next