Incorporating Source Code Reading into Operating Systems Class Projects

Instructors of operating systems classes have long desired to incorporate programming projects into the class that will give students an appreciation for the source code of the kernel of a real operating system.Unfortunately, this lofty goal in practice becomes difficult to effectively pull off.This paper reviews the motivation and benefits for incorporating programming projects in an operating systems class.Next we review several approaches and environments for operating systems programming projects.Finally a new approach involving source code reading is described as a means to supplement other programming projects.