Many Moose members mailing!

Dennis Marer dmarer@td2cad.intel.com
Thu, 17 Dec 92 14:43:44 PDT


Greetings and welcome!

	Howdy!  Sorry about the long pause between messages...it's been very
busy (and exciting) around here!  So far, I've been sent info from about 15
people willing to work on Moose, and I think that's a comfortable size.  I've
included the full list at the end of this message, so get acquainted!

	As I expected, we've got a wide range of people to think up ideas,
which is great!  I was counting on the fact that none of us has exactly the
same kinds of experience.  Probably the most important factor is that none of
us has the same LEVEL of experience...it's my theory that if you put a group
of computer gurus together to write an operating system, only computer gurus
will be able to use it.  :-)  Even if you personally don't have the practical
or theoretical (I.E., school) experience that others might have, you're still
just as important to the success of this project.

	On a side note, I've been talking with Andy Tannenbaum (OS guru, has
written a couple of books and operating systems) about this project to get his
input on the feasibility of our undertaking.  He's been trying to convince me
it can't be done without several hundred man-years effort, but I still think
he's got the wrong approach.  He wrote Minix by himself, so between the 15 or
so of us we should be able to accomplish something also.  I thrive on projects
which are claimed to be 'impossible' because I find them much more interesting.
If you know something can be done, what's the point of doing it?

	I'm still wading through all the responses I've recieved from the
survey I posted, which has added up to several hundred pages!  I did not expect
such turnout, so it's taking a bit longer to compile the results than I had
originally anticipated.

	The first revision of the Moose general specifications is also being
compiled, and will be ready for your perusal next week.  These specs show how
I envision the system interacting as a whole, and I've tried to keep from
including specific features.  I'm seeking to capture the concept of this system
as a whole, and from there we can work out the details.  You'll all recieve
this when it's finished, and from there you can add any new suggestions you
come up with also.

	The next step is to divide us up into groups.  I think for the present,
we should all participate in developing the interface to the kernel.  It's such
an important portion of the system that we should all have a hand in shaping
how every other section (video, disk, I/O, etc) interface with it.  What I'm
looking for before we actually break into groups are SPECIFICS about what each
function does, the parameters it takes, and so on.  From there the kernel can
be implemented, as well as each sub-group having a place to work from.  Put
your thinking caps on and start thinking about what kind of interface you'd
like for the following:

	* Memory allocation - to allow allocation of memory (virtual? shared?)
		resizing of allocated blocks (is this portable?), etc.

	* Process communication - Windows uses DDE, Unix uses pipes and shared
		memory, how are we gonna do it?

	* Device management - If your application needs XXX device, how does
		it go about using this device?

	* Time management - Process scheduling and prioritizing, real time
		functions, etc.

	* Standards - Unicode character system?  (YES!)  File protection
		standards? (X.400?)  


	Just some stuff to chew on over the holidays...send me any ideas you've
got, and they'll be included!

	So what am I doing now?  Several suggestions have come up regarding
this project, the first of which was to actually start a real non-profit
organization.  It'll protect each of us in copyright situations, and I think
in general it's a good idea if this thing takes off.  I'll keep you posted as
the details work themselves out.

	We'll probably need a central place to store our work, ideally some
machine each of us can FTP to and leave stuff and retrieve stuff.  If any of
you know of such a system (mine is definitely OUT) please let me know.  Also,
it's been suggested to set up mailing lists at that system for easier contact
with all members, such as moose-general@system.whatever, or moose-kernel@...
This should ease communications.  Anybody have such access?

	Well, it's holiday season for most of us, so let's get in touch again
after January 10th or so.  This gives everyone time to get back into the swing
of things after New Years, plenty of time to put on that thinking cap and hash
out your wonderful ideas...take care, and keep in touch.  Again, if you have
any suggestions, problems, ideas, etc., let me know or send to the group as a
whole!  Hope to hear from you soon!

				Dennis


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name:		Gary D. Duzan

E-Mail:		duzan@cis.udel.edu, duzan@dsh.org,
		Gary=Duzan%CSS%DHSSDSH@banyan.dsh.org

Snail Mail:	621 Shue Drive
		Todd Estates I
		Newark, DE  19713

Education:	B.S. Computer Science
		University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Occupation:	Network Administrator at Delaware State Hospital
		Managing a Banyan Vines PC network, a 386BSD mail/news
		UUCP/SMTP gateway, Gupta SQLBaser servers, and just
		about anything else computer related that needs to be
		done.

Specialities:	Keeping up with the latest in Operating Systems Research
		Griping about DOS (and any other brain damage)
		C Programming (General)
		Picking up new systems
		Helping others with projects
		Leaving personal projects half-done (though I always
		   finish things that need doing)

Experience:	Started with computers in 1981 (6th grade), including
		Apple IIs, Atari 8bits, VMS, DOS machines, Unix, and
		dabbling in any number of other systems.

		I worked a number of data entry and computer operator
		in high school and college through temporary agencies,
		which exposed me to a wide variety of systems.

		I also worked as a site assistant and senior student
		consultant during college. I unofficially helped
		manage a Sun network (since the sysadmin really didn't
		know anything about Unix) and was often consulted as
		a system guru.

		College projects included a study of Distributed
		Systems and the design of a Virtual File System
		for Minix.

		I've written C parsers and such in my spare time. My
		latest product is a utility to monitor the activity
		on a number of equivalent Sun workstations and suggest
		which to use when connecting from a terminal.

Languages:	English, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, 6502, 65816, 8086,
		Lisp dialects

Publications:	None.

Interests:	Science Fiction/Fantasy Books and Television
		British Stuff
		Music by artists noone has heard of (mostly called NewAge,
		   though I dabble in Folk and Jazz)
		Choral Music (I've performed with groups in Carnegie Hall,
		   Finlandia Hall, Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center),
		   and lots of other interesting places.)

Other:		Jumping blindly into huge projects. :-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

			 ,
Name:           Francois-Rene Rideau (call me Fare)
		    '
E-Mail:		rideau@clipper.ens.fr

Snail mail:	6, rue Augustin Thierry
		75019 PARIS 
		FRANCE
		or
		(Ecole Normale Superieure)
		45 rue d'Ulm
		75230 PARIS CEDEX 05
		FRANCE

Education:	Student in Maths & C.S. at the ENS
Specialties:	Dreaming about new OO generic language OS and CPU
		Assembly language programming
Experience:	No professional experience.
		Fun with programming and unprotecting games.
Languages:	French,English,(Spanish),(Vietnamese?),
		BASIC, 6502 asm, 80x86 asm, C, Pascal, RPL, Forth, C++,
		(68000 asm) (any you want)
Publications:	humorous articles in (very) local papers
Interests:	Classical Music,
		Vietnam (me. to^i la` ngu+o+?i Vie^.t-Nam)
		Role-Playing games and making psychological SF scenarii
		books about the political Power (B de Jouvenel,Tocqueville,...)
		logic and (artificial or natural) intelligence
Other:          Participating absurdly huge projects...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name:           Steve Luzynski

EMail:          sal8@po.cwru.edu

SnailMail:      11904 Carlton Rd, #430D
                Cleveland, OH  44106

Education:      Ongoing....

Occupation:     Computer Engineering Student at Case Western Reserve 
                University. Summer employed at Harmon Electronics in Grain 
                Valley, MO doing software documentation and hardware 
                testing.

Specialities:   C++
                Graphics (can't draw em but I can program em)
                OS/2 - experience with object oriented GUIs

Experience:     First computer was an Apple //e. Wrote a full featured 
                telecommunticaions program and a idiotproof disk utility 
                program in assembly language for it.

                C and C++ on 80386 machines. Written graphics intensive 
                games and various 'make life easier' utilities.

                Assembly and PL/M microcontroller programming. Deciphered 
                10 years worth of multiauthored, zero commented code to 
                write the bible on the system it controlled.

Languages:      English, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, 6502 assembly, 8039 
                microcontroller assembly.

Publications:   None.

Interests:      Computer everything, waterskiing, industrial music.

Current 
 projects:      Designing & implementing a play-by-email game for MSdos 
                systems in C++. Going to school. Learning to program OS/2 
                PM.


Groups:         Video, general stuff.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:           John Newlin

E-Mail:         newlin@ecn.purdue.edu

Snail mail:     2550 Yeager Rd.  Apt. #4-5
		W. Lafayette, IN  47906
		U.S.A.

Education:      Senior in BSCEE program 
                Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN

Occupation:     Student, dedicated to graduation in May with as little
		work as possible, and occupying my time in as many non-school
		related activities as possible.  In other words, enjoy my
		Senior year ;-)

Specialties:    Perl language programming (I love it!)
                Object oriented software development
                GUI based applications in Macintosh environment
		Software Engineering, structured analysis.
		Hey, I'm a student, I haven't had time to become
		a specialist ;-)

Experience:     Been working with computers since 1988, including the
                IBM PC's and compatibles, Unix systems, VAX/VMS, and Mac's.
                 
		 Coop experience with Thomson Consumer Electronics.
		 Worked on automated test equipment, and toyed with
		 an OO framework call Turbo Vision, for controlling
		 an IEEE-488 rack of equipment.

		 Intern with Motorola.  Wrote a client-server based
		 app with a UNIX server and a cluseter of Mac's as the
		 clients.  Of course this was through the high leve
		 interface to TCP-IP.


Languages:      English, BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, 
                plus 80x86, 68000, 6809, Perl, sed, awk, Lisp.

Publications:   No papers or books published, no patents held.

Interests:      Biking, hiking, camping, hanging out with friends,
		wallyball, almost anything except country music,
		drinking large quantities of alcohol to induce
		a trance like state, and possibly induce a reversal
		of the esophageal muscles ;-)
		Going to class, occasionally.

Other:          sleep, when I am not wasting my life away ;-)
                Working on my political career as I am aspriting
		to become the President one day.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:           Rob McKeever

E-Mail:         mckeeveb@sfu.ca
		rmckeeve@sfu.ca
		(either of the above ...@sfuvax.bitnet)

Snail mail:     Appt #201 - 5336 E. Hastings St.
                Burnaby, B.C. V5B 1R1
                Canada

Education:      Second year Computing Science student,
                Simon Fraser University

Occupation:     Programmer, McKeever's Software Wizardry, BC, Canada
		Developing PC-based Medical office management database systems

		Programmer, Operations & Tech. Support, Simon Fraser University
		Various odd jobs no one else wants...
		including some system security tasks, help system development
		etc.

Specialties:    UNIX-style environment development
                Macintosh (I'm ashaimed of it, really) development
                Object oriented software development
                GUI based applications in X Windows and Macintosh systems
                Daydreaming and thinking about things which could be...

Experience:     Been working with computers since 1983, including the
                PET 2001, Apple II series, IBM PC's, Macintoshes, UNIX

Languages:      English, BASIC, Fortran, C, C++,
                plus 80x86, 680x0, and 6502 assembly languages.

Publications:   No papers or books published, one patent pending

Interests:      Played Saxaphone until it was destroyed in a car accident
		Enjoy RPGs (D&D RoleMaster, etc.)
		Science Fiction novels (all sorts)
		Hacking Unix drivers, porting code (including OS's)

Other:          Organizing absurdly huge projects... :-)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:           Dan Odom

E-Mail:         danodom@matt.ksu.ksu.edu

Snail mail:     P.O. Box 281
                Hays, KS 67601-0281
                U.S.A.

Education:      Given the fact that I feel degrees and formal education
                have nothing to do with you skill level, I am leaving
                this field blank.  I have known high school dropouts
                that could write a complete database app in C in under
                a month, and PhDs who thought that REXX was second only
                to PL/1 (geez).

Occupation:     Professional bum. :-)


Specialties:    8086 Assembly language programming (moderate skill)
                Object oriented software design
                Strong C/Unix background
                Designing software that engineers think is neat and not
                giving a damn about the 'general user'.

Experience:     Been working with computers since 1984, including the
                IBM PC's and many Unix systems (BSD-ish OSs preferred).
                Written about a zillion apps for myself.  Which
                one do you want to hear about?
                I basically just write software for myself.

Languages:      English, BASIC (mostly forgotten), Pascal (also mostly
                forgotten), C, C++, Forth (again, mostly forgotten), German
                (human language, moderate skill), 80x86 assembler, LISP.
                Learning 680x0 assembler.


Publications:   No papers or books published, no patents held.

Interests:      Computers, systems programming, Grateful Dead, telecom,
                Dead Kennedys, Jethro Tull, EE/CE, doing horribly
                perverted things in LISP and 80x86 ASM.

Other:          Other?  You mean there's something _besides_ computers
                and music? 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name -- David Paschal

email -- dspascha@eos.ncsu.edu (gone Sun Dec 13 until around Jan 3)

snail mail at NCSU:
David Paschal
NCSU Box 4021
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 821-7271

at home:
David Paschal
6025 Lansing Drive
Charlotte, NC 28270
(704) 364-2294

Education/occupation -- Graduate of the NC School of Science and Math (NCSSM)
Extensive computer programming experience, both independently and as "work
service" at NCSSM.
currently freshman at NC State University studying computer science

Specialties -- Intel 80x86 assembly language programming (I love it too!)  :-)
DOS "utilities" such as TSR's and related hacks.  Some more important programs
I've written include a utility that write protects a hard disk (loads from the
boot sector before DOS!), some network printing utilities (fix those %^&*
programs that don't flush the print queue!), an pretty decent subroutine library
for things like heap management, text-mode windowed video, INI configuration
file parsing, and DOS environment manager.  So far I have written two programs
with this new library -- a network login program and a software menu program
which can look for menu files on various file services on a network.

***Some of this library might be useful (with some porting to protected mode)
for your OS, especially the INI file parser.

Experience -- worked with computers since 1985 -- first a TRS-80, then IBM XT
clone, then 386 clone.  Programming experience both independently and as a
"work service" (required work study) student at NCSSM.

Languages -- mainly 80x86 assembly, but also some BASIC, C, C++, Pascal
Operating systems used -- DOS, Unix, VMS

Other interests -- cello, Deutsch.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:           Eric Anderson
E-Mail:         eanders@cmu.edu, eanders@sura.net
Snail Mail:	10122 Renfrew Rd.
		Silver Spring, MD 20901-2049 USA.
Education:	Candidate for B.S. in Computer Science, Technical
		Writing, and a Masters in Math.
Occupation:	Primarily Student.  I also work at SURAnet supporting
		archie, writing network operations tools, and
		supporting the /usr/local there.  I also work some for
		User Services at CMU.
Specialties:	Object Oriented development
		Application level programs.
		GUI applications in X windows
		Playing with somewhat expensive machines.
Experience:	Been playning with computers since 1984-1985
		Went to Math Science Magnet Program in High School,
		Worked for NSWC, SURAnet, Sylvest, User Services at
		CMU doing various software development tasks.
		PS copy of my resume available from
		madhatter.ws.cc.cmu.edu:pub/eric/Resume.ps if you care.
		Played on everything from C64 to Sun Sparcstation
Languages:	English, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Forth, SML, Logo,
		Perl, Scheme, Prolog, 6502 assembler
		Unix, MS-DOS, VMS, Apple Macintoshes
Publications:	Not yet, hopefully eventually
Interests:	Learning to write better, some poetry, listening to
		all sorts of music, playing in the CMU band, Ballroom
		and other types of dancing, learning more stuff.
		PRIMARILY: Graduating in 4 years.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:           Matt Morgan

E-Mail:         mmorg@rice.edu

Snail mail:     Wiess College
                  P.O. Box 2011
                Houston, TX 77252
                U.S.A.

Education:      Currently enrolled at Rice University (in Houston).

Occupation:     student

Specialties:    Object-oriented programming
		Machine learning
		System administration

Experience:     Worked with computers for most of my lifetime: everything
		from the Commodore 64 to the IBM ES/9000, and many things
		in between.

		(current) Student UNIX Programmer at Rice University.
		(Essentially system administration work.)

Languages:      ML, C++, C, Scheme, Forth, BASIC, and 6502 and SPARC
                assembly languages.

Publications:   One small article plus program listing for a game to play
		Othello, in Compute!, Gazette Edition, December 1991.

Interests:      Computer music and MIDI applications
                Piano/organ/synthesizer playing
		Volleyball, racquetball

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:		Peter Mueller

E-Mail:		mueller@sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE
		pm@opal.cs-tu-berlin.de

Snail Mail:	Detmolder Str. 15
		1000 Berlin 31
		Germany

Education:	Currently undergraduate of computer
		science at Technical University of
		Berlin; (well, I hope to receive my 
		graduate in May 1993 ...)

Occupation:	Currently jobbing at Konrad-Zuse Center
		for Technical Information located in
		Berlin (ZIB). I think it's too arrogant
		to declare this as a "real" occupation.

Specialties:	Ouh! Specialties? Don't you get them
		in the "real" world?
		Thinking about how one could make things
		object oriented
		Willing to learn as much as possible
		Willing to be active as much as possible
		 
Experience:	Compared with the most of you not much,
		let me see:
		IBM PC and compatibles
		Unix Systems (Especially Sun 
		workstations)
		(If it is of interest: I've programmed
		a tetris like game for MS Windows. That's my 
		"GUI Programming Experience". 
		BTW: That programming was horrible. Why
		do you have to write so much to let the
		blocks fall ...?)

Languages:	Broken English, hope it is well enough
		for the project
		C, C++, Pascal, old boy BASIC

Publications:	No papers, no books, no patents (but 
		stay tuned ...)

Interests:	Computer Music, MIDI applications
		especially composing with them,
		New Wave, Pop

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name: Jason R. Pascucci
Email: jasonp@primerd.prime.com
SnailMail:  1 Universal St #2
            Framingham, MA 01701
            USA
Education: No degree. Various and random courses at various and
random Universities

Occupation: Software Engineer at ComputerVision, Framingham, MA, USA.
Support of PRIMOS OS, RiscOS, etc, etc. Conversion/Migration Consulting.
Lots and lots of other stuff.

Specialties: 50 Series Architecture (70's stuff)
             All the Normal and Slightly Silly Languages.
             Porting issues, Cross Platform Development
             High-level Design to Implementation
             Hacking.
             X internals, GUI's, etc.
             Lots of very random knowledge.

Experience: Random companies doing PC type stuff. Prime Computer/CV
for about 5 years, mostly 50 Series, about 3 years of Unix
internals. Etc, etc.

Languages: Way to many...and I get them confused sometimes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:          Ross Hayden

E-mail:        haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet

Snail mail:    2001 Rockcreek Rd. Apt 2E
               Bowling Green, KY  42101-3656

Education:     BS in computer science expected December 1993
               Western Kentucky University

Specialties:   MS-DOS, OS/2 system programming; Compiler theory;
               database theory; assembly language programming

Experience:    6 years with MS-DOS, 1.5 years OS/2, 2 years Windows.
               Written many applications for fun, such as a real-time
               executive, a C preprocessor for text windowing
               routines.

Languages:     C, C++, 80X86 assembly, 6502 assembly, Pascal.

Interests:     Programming, tutoring CS students, compiler theory,
               operating system theory.  Running, weight training,
               camping, bicycle racing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Name:	Michael David Winikoff

E-mail:	winikoff@cs.mu.oz.au

Snail: 	1 Tobruk st. Bulleen 3105, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Education: Finished BSc this year. Will be doing honours in 1993.

Occupation: Student :-)
	[This summer holidays I am employed by the computer science department
	 as a research assistant. I'm working on abstract interpretation of
	 Prolog]
	
Specialities: 
	(Pure Lazy) Functional programming. 

Experiance: Very little until I began my course in 1990.
	I have since spent a summer vacation avaluating the suitability of a
	relational database package for a marketting research application.

	Another summer vacation was spent researching transaction recovery
	for deductive databases. During the following year the guts of a 
	relational file system was implemented.

	This summer I am working with an abstract interpretation engine for
	Prolog.

Languages: English. C. Haskell. Prolog. ML. Parlog.
	Rusty: 68000 assembler, Pascal.

Publications: None. (yet :-)

Interests: Functional programming. (techniques, environments, operating system
			interfacing, implementation)
	Music (classical, I play piano and do some composing from time to time.)
	Role Playing (Currently Star Wars RPG)
	   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Name:           David Potter

   E-Mail:         potter@watson.ibm.com

   Snail mail:     P.O. Box 218
		   Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
		   U.S.A.

   Education:      B.S. Industrial Engineering
		   Lafayette College, Easton, PA

   Occupation:     Systems programmer at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.
		   Systems Management, Performance Management,
		   Research into how the computer might better augment
		   human thinking.

   Specialties:    Operating systems (I love them!)
		   System performance and tuning.
		   Algorithms, (hashing, searching, etc.)
		   Process scheduling and VMM
		   State sampling user processes
		   Studying user productivity
		   Daydreaming and thinking about things which could be...

   Experience:     Been working with computers since 1963, including the
		   IBM 1620, 1130, S/360, S/370, S/390, PCs, RISC System/6000.

		   First decade spent as I.E. doing facilities planning for
		   IBM products including the System/360.

		   Second decade doing system programming for OS/MVS, especially
		   for performance management.

		   Third decade doing system programming for VM, especially
		   for performance management.  I wrote the VM/PRF tool
		   (VM/Performance Reporting Facility) for VM/XA and VM/ESA.
		   Now I am working on Unix (AIX 3 on RISC System/6000s), and
		   developing an accounting package for NIC clusters.
		   I am currently an active member of the Unix International
		   Performance Management Working Group (UI/PMWG) which is about
		   to publish a proposal for standard performance measuement enablers.

		   Permanent position with IBM (currently) since June, 1963.

   Languages:      English, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, PL/I, Grin.

   Publications:   Several Research reports, and no books.

   Interests:      Music (Classical and Country Western)
		   Cooking
		   Puzzles
		   Hiking

*                tuktusiuriagatigitqingnapin'ngitkiptin'nga, David Potter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



E-Mail:         dmarer@td2cad.intel.com

Snail mail:     P.O. Box 1006
                Los Gatos, CA 95031-1006
                U.S.A.

Education:      B.S. Computer Engineering
                University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

Occupation:     Software Engineer at Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA
                Development of software to assist in the production of IC's,
                CAD based applications, placement of test circuitry and
                alignment marks for mask generation.

Specialties:    Assembly language programming (I love it!)
                Object oriented software development
                Microprocessor/controller based system hardware design
                DSP hardware and software design for digital audio:
                    - Sampling and playback, esp. oversampling techniques
                    - Music synthesis using frequency modulation
                    - Effects processing
                Text parsing with error detection/recovery algorithms
                GUI based applications in X Windows and MS Windows
                Daydreaming and thinking about things which could be...

Experience:     Been working with computers since 1982, including the
                Atari 800, IBM PC's and compatibles, Unix systems, VAX/VMS.

                Co-op experience with Siemens AG, Erlangen, West Germany.
                Worked with code and project management tools for a large
                scale software project, plus designed a tool to verify
                source code file inclusions against MAKE files.

                Co-op experience with Intel, Santa Clara, CA, USA.  Developed
                software to model the effect of infrared light through thin-
                film layers on silicon substrates to extract film composition
                information from wavelength data.

                Permanent position with Intel (currently) since June.

Languages:      English, BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, Forth, Mainsail,
                plus 80x86, 68000, 6502, and VAX assembly languages.

Publications:   No papers or books published, no patents held.

Interests:      Computer music and MIDI applications
                Piano, synthesizers, guitar, octave mandolin
                Techno pop, modern rock, industrial, Irish traditional music
                Poetry and similar writings

Other:          Organizing absurdly huge projects... :-)