Courses/Computer Science/CPSC 457.S2016/Lecture Notes/L1

Lecture 1 - Introductions, Overview and Operating Systems

Concepts

• The workings of the course
• What Operating Systems do for us

Slides

My slides are available as PDF PPTX or Handout PDF

Outline

• Introductions
  • Are we all in the right place?
  • Who are we?
• Overview
  • Course Policies
  • Schedule
  • Lectures
  • Tutorials
  • Assignments
  • Exams
  • Texts
• What does an OS do
  • An Operating System Tour
  • OS Functions and Features
• What do we want to know about Operating Systems?

Questions for next time

1. How much total pet food does the class use a month?
   1. 132Kg of food total
2. Do we always need to connect remotely?
   1. You shouldn't need to. Remote access lets you get the tools you have in the lab when you're away, so everything is available in the lab too.
3. How do we determine which computer name to use?
   1. The department Remote Access information: [1]
4. Should I be reading the text book more?
   1. Maybe. The text books are good, you'll also find a lot of resources in Linux itself (man is your friend) and on the web. If you're feeling a little uncomfortable with the command line interface of Linux, I have a tutorial here: [2]
5. What format with the midterm and final be?
   1. Mostly short answer. Expect a few factual recall questions (who wrote C?), more synthesis questions (is the Windows approach to system calls better than the Linux one?) and some questions about the assignments (What information does stat tell you about a file).
6. Will we be able to do assignments at home or will we have to use the computer labs?
   1. Assignment 1 you can do anywhere so long as you have Linux and a C compiler. Remote access will allow you to work from home. Assignments 2 & 3 will both require you to work with your VM which you should be able to use outside of the lab (although I will need to check a few things first).
7. Where do babies come from?
   1. I'm a computer scientist, you might want to ask these folks: [3]