Singularity OS

Phorex h

hey guys,
you might have heard of the singularity RDK, released by microsoft.
I Like the idea of an OS written entirely in managed code, and i've been searching
for any ideas, tutorials, teachers, developers, who know how to "learn singularity" for a long time now,
to learn sth about singularity, OS programming and stuff like that myself.
the main problem was, that i don't know why people (funny enough, most of them appear to be c/c++, assembler-programmers for their whole life) are just stubborn enough, to start seriously discussing about "no c# in OS-programming!!!! no managed code in OS-programing!!!" and so on...., when i asked for help in ~leanring~ sth... o.0
i'm tired of it and i know it it is difficult to compile c# to processor-code properly (GC and so on...)
but this is not about if i'm going to do this, but more about ~how~
(excuse me, this is just to prevent any posts like "WHAT??!, he wants to write an OS in c#?? OMG SHOOT IT!!!")
so now my question :D
did anyone find a good tutorial on how to work with the singularity, or is it possible to write a little tutorial on this?
many managed code operating systems, just like the former SharpOS, now called MOSA, the javaOS, singularity, cosmos and so on appeared to be good for students to learn a complete new way of programming. the problem is to get one single document that contains all information on this topic.
even with google its very hard to find sth like this, and all of its dependencies- i feel like one of these poor illuminati, following the path to enlightment, but the first test is to find the path :D

i really hope you can help me,
would be great!!
a big thank you, to every one answering and those, trying it !! :)

12 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Sam Hobbs15y ago
For the purpose of others curious about Cosmos, see Getting Started - Cosmos. The operating sytem is not a normal OS. What we do is to build a program written in C# and then build it using VC. The result of the build is the bootable operating system and that operating system only does what the program we wrote does. So yes we must have VS 2010 to use the operating system.
Vulpes15y ago
It said in the FAQ that they were investigating adding back VS Express support in the future but the problem seems to be lack of plug-in support.

I don't know why MS decided to discontinue the VS Standard Version. I for one would have been prepared to purchase a license for that for personal use, but VS Pro is ridiculously expensive when 95% of the stuff I actually use can be done with the free Express editions.
Phorex h15y ago
seems to be true well this at least works are further milestones planned for the express editions? they wrote sth about developing only for the vs prof ed...
Vulpes15y ago
Can't say I'm surprised it's not working.

The blurb on the VS 2010 integrated shell download seemed to be saying you needed VS 2010 Pro or above for it to work and I've just found this MSDN link now which confirms that it doesn't work with the Express editions :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb685612.aspx

So, it looks like you'll have to be content with Milestone 4, for the time being at least :)
Phorex h15y ago
well we tried it :D
vc# express 2010, integrated shell, milestone 5, iso-build
any ideas?

System.TypeLoadException: Der Typ "Cosmos.Hardware.Hardware" in der Assembly "Cosmos.Hardware, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5ae71220097cb983" konnte nicht geladen werden.
bei System.Reflection.CustomAttribute._GetPropertyOrFieldData(RuntimeModule pModule, Byte** ppBlobStart, Byte* pBlobEnd, String& name, Boolean& bIsProperty, RuntimeType& type, Object& value)
bei System.Reflection.CustomAttribute.GetCustomAttributes(RuntimeModule decoratedModule, Int32 decoratedMetadataToken, Int32 pcaCount, RuntimeType attributeFilterType, Boolean mustBeInheritable, IList derivedAttributes, Boolean isDecoratedTargetSecurityTransparent)
bei System.Reflection.CustomAttribute.GetCustomAttributes(RuntimeType type, RuntimeType caType, Boolean inherit)
bei System.RuntimeType.GetCustomAttributes(Type attributeType, Boolean inherit)
bei Cosmos.IL2CPU.ILScanner.FindPlugImpls()
bei Cosmos.IL2CPU.ILScanner.Execute(MethodBase aStartMethod)
bei Cosmos.Compiler.Builder.Builder.RunEngine(Object aParam)
Phorex h15y ago
thanks for your help man :)
vs 2008 worked fine, for some parts of the framework (unfortunatley not the whole .NET has been brought to Cosmos) but i'll try it with the shell and milestone 5
lets have a look if it works :D
*praying*
Vulpes15y ago
Although, it seems to be contradicting what it said in the FAQ, it says in the following page that 'Express users need to install the Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell runtime'.

http://cosmos.codeplex.com/releases/view/58275

The download for that is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=115

However, there was also a version of that for VS 2008 so you might as well try it if you've already got Milestone 4 installed:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=16480
Vulpes15y ago
Judging by the FAQ (http://cosmos.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=FAQ&referringTitle=Home), it doesn't look like it unless you go for the older Milestone 4 version.
Phorex h15y ago
yep i've seen this, but your problem is also mine.
( VC# express - i'm just a student :D )
and there's no way to get it workin by using VCS express 2010(/2008 if necessary)?
Vulpes15y ago
Unfortunately, I can't help with this as I only have VS Express on my home machine.

Did you see the Cosmos tutorial on YouTube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVGSGiEtT_A
Phorex h15y ago
first of all,

thanks for your answer :)
i know singularity is based on actually a complete new language, this is also one big thing,
but workin with cosmos appeared to be as hard as learning the basics of singularity.

i think i don't know enough about the architecture of Cosmos, to cope with certain exceptions, thrown by the il2cpu engine. in fact building a cosmos boot project just fails.

do you have any ideas how i can get this system to work? it'd be perfect to put the cosmOS to my 2nd pc, to let it do its work there, so i won't be using any virtual machines.
i'll build the code on my mainstation, wich is a dualcore dell-laptop and then test it on my Zbox (hopefully^^) via usb or sd-card.
any ideas?

but anyway, thanks a lot :)
Vulpes15y ago
If I had more time to look into this stuff (which I don't), then I'd be inclined to give the Microsoft Research stuff, such as Singularity, a miss. You never really know whether a project is still active or not and the general attitude is that 'if you need to ask, then you won't understand the answer'. Also in the case of Singularity you need to understand two non-standard versions of C#: Spec# and Sing#. The first of these has already been superseded by code contracts in .NET 4.0.

Cosmos seems like a much more friendly proposition to me, it's clear from its home page that it is being actively developed (http://cosmos.codeplex.com/) and there are plenty of links available. No doubt it still helps if you have a Ph.D in computer science but, when it comes to serious operating system work, that goes with the country :)