[Reading Notes] Reading "amazing"

In middle August, a book on Douban attracted me. This book is<>English name<Showstopper>. This book is about the process of Microsoft designing and developing the NT kernel at the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s. Therefore, there is also a lengthy subtitle under the title: Microsoft's creation of NT and Its Future
Race to create Windows NT and the next generation atmicrosoft ). Windows NT was completed in the middle of years, and the English version of this book was also released in. After 15 years, its Chinese version can finally meet with us.

Unlike <Borland legend> written by Li Wei, a technical expert of the past few years, Pascal Zachary, the author of this book, is a liberal arts scholar. His writing style is more like reportage. This book is intended for readers of non-technical personnel, so there is little analysis and description of technology and industry as well as the software itself. The author focuses on people, engineers who design, develop, and test WindowsNT. The author does not hesitate to introduce their personal growth history, work, and family. After reading this book, I feel that the software development process seems to be a process of communicating with people. In software projects, this process may take more time than communicating with machines.

David Cutler is the master in the book. Before joining Microsoft, he worked in Dec to design a well-known VMS system, because the "prism" of Dec was canceled and he ran out of DEC in anger, while Gates was able to find his fortune. After joining Microsoft, David Cutler has been thinking about designing a UNIX system that is better than those designed by the doctoral program. At that time, Gates just tasted the sweetness of the Windows operating system, ambitious to build an operating system for the 21st century, two people started the NT project for this common ideal.

Culter initially developed three goals for the design of the NT kernel: 1 Portability: To create an operating system suitable for each hardware. 2. Reliability: the "bullet proof" system is used to end unnecessary crashes. 3. PERSONALIZATION: NT should be flexible and have more than one user interface. In the face of portability issues, Cutler decided to use the advanced language to implement the NT system, which means that the NT will be very large, yes, the final release of the NT Version is very large, however, the rapid development of the hardware industry has helped nt. For the reliability and personalization issues, Cutler boldly adopted the micro-kernel design method in NT, but it has to pay the price of speed, cutler and his team eventually compensated for the speed shortage with superb programming skills.

In the past 90 years, Microsoft and IBM have separated themselves on the OS/2 project, and the OS/2 project team joined the Cutler team, microsoft decided to enable Windows to support more beautiful interfaces and better ease-of-use, and to combine the portable and reliable NT kernel, this convergence allows Microsoft to focus on creating Windows NT, a world-changing operating system.

The last three chapters of this book are relatively hasty. The author worships the bug change process and the psychological status of team members without analyzing the gains and losses of software engineering from a higher perspective, nor does it fully introduce the impact of Windows NT on the software industry. Such content may only be found in Brooks' <man-month myth>, making it difficult for the author of the liberal arts background.

In general, this is a good book. The NT System has been released for a year. It is not easy for the author to describe this complex engineering activity so easily. Thanks to Pascal and the Chinese translators for bringing us this book, so that we can review the extremely difficult and exciting nt creation process.

Dr. Zhang yaqin of Microsoft commented on this book:

"When you close this book, you will find that software is not only the crystallization of wisdom, but also synonymous with faith, dignity and charm. "

As a newcomer to the software industry, I see the complexity, hardships, and madness of the software development process, as described in the book, the process of developing software is the most complex intellectual activity in the world. It is the complexity that makes Cutler great. We should pay tribute to the great programmers.

In terms of software development, this book brings me the following thoughts:

1. Eat your own dog food eating your own dog food. Only by eating dog food can creators discover problems arising from the interaction of various parts of the software system. This is similar to the success of Unix. the Unix time-sharing system mentioned in the article that UNIX developers are also users of Unix systems, so they will constantly improve the system.

2. The importance of building and testing. Cutler is even stationed in building a lab, which determines the final quality of the system.

3. The importance of coding quality and readability. Cutler's code style, a line of code and a line of comments, search for David culter's name on Google Code to appreciate the Code he wrote (he found that he was still coding when he was 60 years old ).

4. The importance of the team. Cutler sets up his core team in Dec. These team members have different personalities and have different expertise. At every critical moment, the Cutler team can always stand up.

5. market factors are the internal factors for the success of software projects, the top technology, and the market position. NT manager Muglia repeatedly stressed that

"Although computer software must be conceived and created by programmers, it must reflect the current market conditions and customer needs."

6. Great engineering works come from great companies. A large company has many talents, and a large engineering project consumes a lot of manpower and financial resources, which is not what the general organization can afford.
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Thinkhy 09/09/07 written on the ground late at night