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Behind Menuet, an OS Written Entirely In Assembly

Posted by Soulskill on from the keep-it-simple dept.

angry tapir writes "MenuetOS is an operating system written entirely in assembly language. As a result it's extremely quick and compact (it can even fit on a floppy disk, despite having a GUI). It can run Quake. Two of the developers behind MenuetOS took time out to talk about what inspired them to undertake the daunting task of writing the operating system, the current state of Menuet and future plans for it."

16 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. From the license... by damburger · · Score: 5, Funny

    3) Redistribution, reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation prohibited without permission from the copyright holders.

    Are you sure they wrote the entire thing in assembly language?

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    1. Re:From the license... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hex? You had it easy.

      I had to flip switches on a front panel, in binary.

      Though come to think of it, when I was a child I had a 'computer' that was programmed by putting wires into holes in a breadboard. So.. binary, pah! I had it easy...

    2. Re:From the license... by GIL_Dude · · Score: 5, Funny

      That must have sucked when they had a heap overflow. Someone could also step on them and seriously flatten the stack. I guess if there were too many, you could always throw the exceptions at someone, huh?

    3. Re:From the license... by norminator · · Score: 4, Funny

      I had to use butterflies:

      I opened my hands and let the delicate wings flap once. The disturbance ripples outward, changing the flow of the eddy currents in the upper atmosphere. These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form, which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

      *shamelessly stolen from XKCD

    4. Re:From the license... by m.ducharme · · Score: 3, Funny

      For those of you not interested in following the link...there's an Emacs command for that.

      --
      Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
  2. But by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does it run Linux?

    Oh wait...

  3. They should... by oldhack · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, they should, like, totally port that to ARM. ;-)

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  4. "it can even fit on a floppy disk"... by martas · · Score: 5, Funny

    *blink*

    is that some kind of new super-awesome flexible organic flash memory?

    --
    weinersmith
  5. Followup to Menuet by halfdan+the+black · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I might work on a sequel...
    Build a 747 with nothing but stone knives and bear skins...

  6. Re:Not the best choice of languages by damburger · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are right of course. What they need is some kind of software tool that can automatically and quickly generate code optimized for any new hardware that comes out. Rather than code in the particular assembly language of the processor of the day they could write out their algorithms in some kind of abstract, human readable script, which the aforementioned tool would then convert to assembly language.

    Why has nobody thought to create such a useful tool for these poor chaps??

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
  7. obsolete technology by gsslay · · Score: 5, Funny

    (it can even fit on a floppy disk, despite having a GUI)

    Excellent, but if we're going to measure these things in obsolete technology;

    - How many parchments would I need to copy it?
    - Could my team of monks transcribe it in its entirety before the Feast of All Hallows Eve?
    - If the Germans intercepted a morse transmissions of it, how long would it take them to crack the code and scupper our plans to retake mainland Europe?

  8. No by hasbeard · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, a floppy disk is what you get when you leave a DVD in the back window of your car on a hot day.

  9. Re:It's not FOSS? by arndawg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine what today's world would be like if Linus had gotten pissed when people started working with the Linux Kernel.

    I'm guessing the population in the western world would be higher.

  10. My Javascript OS by Maltheus · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess now is not the right time to announce my OS written entirely in Javascript. It can already play the Bill Gates Pie in the Face game.

  11. Re:Yes! by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can't put one past you, can they.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  12. Re:It's not FOSS? by pete_norm · · Score: 3, Funny

    All 5 of them?