I haven't done anything other than a "Hello World" floppy-os either, os I'm not laughing. And m_rahman, I agree that optimization is important, but make sure you have the gist of assembly first as on most modern computers, optimization isn't too important, especially with how much space the program takes up. And you should definitely look at osknockout's post about clock cycles. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. And get Ralph Brown's Interrupt List: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/use.../WWW/files.html.

Just to let you know, in case you don't look there, my first tutorial is up in the Tutorials section fo the gorum.

Oh, I'll look at it in my free time... Glad I'm not the only one still going hello world.
Perhaps, but to make the best OS you need the best stuff... and for me that's optimized assembler.

True, but I doubt m_rahman is going to start by making an OS. He needn't worry about optimization until that point or the point of a major project.

I know, but still it's best to learn optimization soon after you get the basics of assembly. Besides, getting it at the basics leads to less bloated code later on, something every program needs.

Very well, I concede that point, although optimization is something I'm still struglling with, especially in my assembler. I wonder if anything is ever truly fully optimized.

Yes osknockout for sure, but just to get my feet wet first, looking to tutorials and discovering what is programming the metal. scary at first, i'll look to the toturials.


well, i may think of writing a screen saver first , then advance to a Hello World calculator.

Thanks vizskywalker for your toturials.

A hello world calculator? Well you're starting pretty high off if you're going for a screen saver. My first did nothing, and the second one right after that printed Hello World! on DOS. In fact, I haven't made a screensave or calculator yet, still getting down the intermediate topics. Besides, that'd be kind of hard, learning all those VGA routines and some real pixel clocking. They are pretty good tutorials, better than the first ones I've read.

Well let's not get too philosophical here but you raise a good point. Optimization almost comes second hand to me, but then again, I'm still struggling on the different types of memory segmentation.

Actually, VGA routines are very easy and don't require knowledge of pixel clocking. Pixel clocking comes into play with SVGA. I'm not exactly sure what a Hello World calculator is, but I'd be happy to help with that, the screensaver, or any other projects. The next tutorial will go up probably on Sunday, and I almost have Linux and NASM figured out. I just need to take care of the headers. Happy programming.