Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!topaz!klinzhai!webber
From: webber@klinzhai.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Getting Computer Resources (Re: software engineering)
Message-ID: <176@brandx.klinzhai.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sat, 18-Apr-87 17:55:42 EST
Article-I.D.: brandx.176
Posted: Sat Apr 18 17:55:42 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Apr-87 07:43:40 EST
References: <340@ndsuvax.UUCP> <1986@cwruecmp.UUCP> <12881@watnot.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 54
Summary: on getting extra computational resources

In article <12881@watnot.UUCP>, ccplumb@watnot.UUCP writes:
> 
> shebs@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Stanley Shebs) says (in <4480@utah-cs.UUCP>):
> >In article <12788@watnot.UUCP> ccplumb@watnot.UUCP (Colin Plumb) writes:
> >
> >>Is 100 pages large enough?  I wrote 54 pages of assembler in
> >>2 months' spare time.  This was for a VAX, running Unix, neither
> >>of which I had used more than a month and a half when I started.
> >>(I really ought to finish the thing... it works, but there are
> >>some bits which are ungodly ugly.  That should bring it up to
> >>*at least* a hundred pages.)  Speaking as a first-year CS student,
> >>I could conceive of writing a Unix kernel.
> >>...

I don't think you want to speak too much about writing Unix kernals
single-handedly without first establishing some operating system
specific background.  A good case can be made that no person or
group of persons has successfully written an operating system of
the size of unix yet (e.g., unix has existed for at least 10 years
and people are still reporting bugs (other operating systems benefit
from being badly documented enough that people can't recognize the
bugs :-) ).

> >		 All the instructor can or should do in those cases is
> >to demand that amazing feats of programming be understandable to
> >normal people, give the students free access to extra computing
> >power, and let 'em rip.

This is just a variant on the classic advice that when you have a student
that doesn't need a teacher in order to learn, then the best thing to do with
them is just turn them loose in a library (perhaps with a reading list).

> 
> Hey, I like that!  So far, my quest for more computing resources has only
> earned me the ire of a hunk of the local systems people.  There is still
> the problem (that a job might fix) that hacking is to be done in intense
> bursts, and classes gum those up rather badly.  They stubbornly refuse to
> be resheduled for 4:00 am two days hence.

There are two classic approaches to getting extra computing resources.
One is to get `hired' by the local system staff.  This gets done by
demonstrating a knowledge and interest in what they do and a
willingness to work with them.  The other way is to offer to aid one
of your faculty in their research (while they may or may not have
money, they don't suffer from the problem of not being able to use
people that they can't pay for).  Again, this gets done by
demonstrating a knowledge and interest in what they do and a
willingness to work with them.  Of course, in figuring out which way
to go, you should determine whether you want to establish vocational
credentials or academic credentials.

Enjoy.

------------------ BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu ; BACKBONE!topaz!webber)