A LÖVELY Senior Project

[CaptainMaelstrom]

So I'm supposed to pick a senior project to do to finish my electrical engineering degree. The way the class works, I can also choose to do a highly computer-oriented project. Obviously, I'm not going to propose a game, but I'd like to do a project that enhances my lua skills and maybe exposes me to multi-threading, networking, low-level graphics programming, AI, etc.

My professor suggested "core design", which he described as streamlining a Unix OS down to one or two main functions. Like, if you wanted a OS to run and only show slideshow of what's on the hard-drive, you could "design" an OS to do that. That's a bad example because efficiency isn't really needed, there, but I think you get the gist.

It has to be a problem that can be solved by design though. I.e., it has to have specific requirements, several potential solutions (maybe not all of them good), and a way for me to compare the designs and objectively say which is better (e.g., "Plan C is the fastest, but Plan A is the best balance between cost and speed.")

Anybody have any cool ideas? I get to do two projects this semester, I believe.

EDIT: I said enhance my Lua skills, but I wouldn't mind working on C++/C or other languages.

[Plu]

Just tossing out an old idea of mine that I'll probably never do anything with, sparked by the idea of a stripped down OS... how about designing a new way to store and relate files on a hard-drive? The ancient model of "a block of data with a name attached stored in a specific spot" could really use a revamp.

Maybe something like storing files with more meta-data, and not having folders but instead views where you can say "files with these tags appear here", and then efficiently storing stuff like that.

How cool it would be to have an OS where I can just create a folder "files matching *.lua" and having it easily and efficiently showing all the lua files on my hard-drive. Or just a folder that automatically displays all the games on my computer based on them having meta-data tags "game" and "executable", with automatic sorting by game category based on the same meta-data.

Or something else entirely. I'm pretty sure that if you forget the "rules" for folders and files that we've used the past few decades you can probably come up with some cool stuff.

[CaptainMaelstrom]

An interesting thought, Plu. Certainly organizing information more efficiently is a problem I could try to tackle. You've got me thinking about other low-level OS functions and how they might be re-ordered, too. Thanks.

[shatterblast]

I like Linux, but I'm not the best technical guru for it specifically. (For instance, I normally don't use the "grep" command.) Anyhow, you might check the differences between the EXT3 and EXT4 file systems. Linux / Unix is known for having efficient storage with disk space from what I have read. For example, Windows requires a "defrag" on occasion where as Linux / Unix does not.

I hope that helps.

[szensk]

For instance, I normally don't use the "grep" command.

How!? I've only used linux from time to time but | grep is essential for me to find anything. imustbedoingitwrong

[shatterblast]

How!? I've only used linux from time to time but | grep is essential for me to find anything. imustbedoingitwrong

Well, I'm not a server admin or Linux admin. If I need to find something, I either Google or know where I need to find one of my creations. I do make heavy use of "CTRL + F." I'm just a hobbyist programmer so I don't keep a vast archive of my code. I deal mainly with graphics.

Also, Ubuntu Linux has this little software called Synaptic Package Manager. It's one of the two reasons I use Ubuntu instead of Red Hat. The other reason is the PPAs, which allow a lot of customization. Ubuntu has been called bloatware, but it's easy to trim the basic software down for a fast O/S.

I hope that answers your question.

Off-topic, I'm eager to test Kali Linux. That's the only software I can think of that I might make frequent use of grep.