OS Next Week

As mentioned previously, we will cover Section 2.3 "Interprocess communication" next week, which should be one of the most interesting topics in Chapter 2. Section 2.3 is your reading assignment.

As a hint (or advice) for the exercise problem, it is likely to be a programming assingment in which you'll use pthread libraries.

Preparation and Review

Some (if not all) students consider that the time for working on the exercise problems is not enough. This may be true and may not be true. Before coming to the class on Friday, do you prepare for the lecture by reading (and finding the points you don't understand) the textbook ?

Also, have you reviewed what you have learned in the lecture of the last week ? The exercise problems are mostly based on the materials taught last week. If you haven't reviewed them, it takes you some time to remember what you studied, (and waste time). When you have remembered what you did a week ago, the time is up.

Another point, some of the students seem to have spent 'easy time' in programming courses last year. If you think so, you definitely need to study the basics of programming again using the course materials used last year.

When you have submitted incomplete exercise, you have to work to completion FOR YOURSELF (meaning, even though it doesn't give you any points for the exercise). Some students are not doing so and that looks to be the reason why they still do not understand how to use sscanf().

OS Next Week

Next week, we will cover Section 2.2 "Threads." This section is your reading assignment.

We understand that some students tried hard, but could not finish today's exercise problem. While the deadline is not extended, it is still worth trying to finish it for yourself as about half of the exercise problems will be programming (in C). There *may* be chances of extra credit in the future.

Some (or most ?) of students need to review the materials of the courses in the last year (such as Introduction to Computer Systems, or C programming).

We miss you (Operating Systems)

Dear students,

You receive this message because you are registered with my section of Operating Systems course and did not come to the class (lecture) recently.

(This is independent of the exercise submission count. If you have already missed four or more exercise submissions, you are out of luck. Study hard next year).

According to the grading scheme in the syllabus, the class attendance does not count toward your final course grade. However, if you do not come to the class (with enough preparation, off course), it is quite likely that you cannot solve the exercise problems and also perform poorly in the exams. You have been given the same advice twice in the class and this message is the third time. Therefore, the final desicion is left up to you.

If you intend to continue with the class, see you next week.

Best regards,

No OS Class Next Week

Due to the business trip of the instructor, OS classes for the next week (both lecture and exercise) have been cancelled. We will resume the class from the week after next, from Section 2.3 "Interprocess Communication" of the textbook.

The students who had difficulties in solving today's exercise should have one or more of the following reasons:

• Lack of understanding in the course materials presented so far (this almost means the sections of the textbook covered so far),
• Lack of proficiency in C-programming language and Unix (Solaris), or more in general, computer literacy,
• Lack of problem solving capability (such as breaking down the objective into smaller goals and finding the procedure/steps to achieve these goals).

Please try to identify your weak points and conquer them in this two week-break.

Section 2.1 This week

This week, we will cover Section 2.1 "Threads." It looks many students need to read course overview slides again.