Operating Systems - Wk1

Topics

• Docker
• Debug/GBD
• Math Addendum
• C-Language

Docker  - à Docker container connects to a temporary instance terminator that will show as EXITED containers if -–rm is not included in the docker run.
Debug/GDB - Isolating failed tests and debugging a little at a time. Working with debugging applications like GDB for larger debug handling, such as stack overflow (crashes)

Math - Converted binary to hex and hex to binary. Determine how big address spaces (areas we have for individual processes) are or f.or all of our memory to be used to how big they are. 

C-Programming - a low-level memory access language that does exactly as you tell it to, and no more.  

Challenges

Getting familiar with GBD and getting started with debugging.

Adjusting to c-programming syntax and operations

The most challenging for me was getting the workflow and conditions for when to debug versus using GBD, as well as readjusting to c-programming language, which is fairly new to me. The syntax and reintroduction to pointers had me reviewing the behavior before I could even process the rest of the code.

Most Comfortable

I really have a much better grasp of identifying overflow and the stack, which had been a little loss in details for me over the years. Same with strcpy vs strlcpy, which I do believe I can now comfortably wrap my head around enough to explain it at its base.

• How do programs go from code, to the operating system, to a point in memory that can be later accessed (create an app that saves onto your pc)?

• How do applications connect to other’s operating systems?

• How are some users able to gain access to other operating systems to “hand over control” as tech-support may do? What would the tech even see on their end?

• How does everything I’ve learned from this point connect as a whole – from hardware, to the memory within that hardware, to the many virtual memories per process, to the program itself, to the running application that can be accessed and shared to other users?

Make the connection

From my previous courses in the program, we worked with Java, DBMS, unit testing, IDE, and Docker. Working from unit tests and multiple files, including creating an Android application that introduced the concept of databases prepared me for DBMS and the consistent use of git commands prepared me for this course. DBMS introduced us to docker, also relevant to this course.