编程与软件工程github.com
BootOS：512 字节 x86 机器码实现的完整操作系统
BootOS: Monolithic operating system in 512 bytes of x86 machine code
2019 — 2021，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 nanochess（Óscar Toledo G.）写的 BootOS：一个完全塞进 512 字节 x86 机器码的单体操作系统，正好占满一个引导扇区，由 BIOS 载入后直接运行。它启动后提供一个极简的命令行界面，靠 BIOS 的 INT 13h 读写磁盘扇区、加载并执行小程序，本质上更像一个自举用的微型文件系统加壳层。作者出身墨西哥的 Familia Toledo 家族，长期自研计算机、操作系统和浏览器。
为什么经久不衰：在 512 字节的硬性约束下把引导、命令行、磁盘读写和程序加载都做出来，是极端约束编程的经典范本，也让人直观理解 PC 启动链条最底层的运作方式。
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介绍作者所属的墨西哥 Familia Toledo 家族自研软硬件的传奇背景，以及他们长期被误认为骗子、鲜少公开源码的处境。
不了解背景的人可能不知道：作者来自一个神秘的地下“巫师”家族 Familia Toledo，他们一家人四十多年来自己设计制造计算机（连回流焊炉这类配套设备都做），自己写操作系统和浏览器。可惜他们住在墨西哥城郊，而不是硅谷或波士顿，所以关于他们成就的公开报道多出自毫无编程和电子学基础的庸俗记者之手。他们大多保持低调，也许是因为每次公开细节，换来的都是“这不可能”“这显然是骗局”之类的评论——说这话的人往往靠装杀毒软件和盗版 Windows 谋生，却自以为懂计算机。这些讨论几乎全是用西班牙语进行的。他们基本从不公开操作系统和浏览器的源码甚至二进制，直到创始人之子 Óscar Toledo G. 以 Nanochess 程序赢得 IOCCC。
kragen查看英文原文
For those not aware of the background, the author is a wizard from a secretive underground society of wizards known as the Familia Toledo; he and his family (it is a family) have been designing and building their own computers (and ancillary equipment like reflow ovens) and writing their own operating systems and web browsers for some 40 years now. Unfortunately, they live on the outskirts of Mexico City, not Sunnyvale or Boston, so the public accounts of their achievements have been mostly written by vulgar journalists without even rudimentary knowledge of programming or electronics. And they have maintained their achievements mostly private, perhaps because whenever they've talked about their details publicly, the commentary has mostly been of the form "This isn't possible" and "This is obviously a fraud" from the sorts of ignorant people who make a living installing virus scanners and pirate copies of Windows and thus imagine themselves to be computer experts. (All of this happened entirely in Spanish, except I think for a small amount which happened in Zapotec, which I don't speak; the family counts the authorship of a Zapotec dictionary among their public achievements.) In particular, they've never published the source or even binary code of their operating systems and web browsers, as far as I know. This changed a few years back when Óscar Toledo G., the son of the founder (Óscar Toledo E.), won the IOCCC with his Nanochess program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Obfuscated_C_Code_Contest#Toledo_Nanochess and four more times as well. His obvious achievements put to rest — at least for me — the uncertainty about whether they were underground genius hackers or merely running some kind of con job. Clearly Óscar Toledo G. is a hacker of the first rank, and we can take his word about the abilities of the rest of his family, even if they do not want to publish their code for public criticism. I look forward to grokking BootOS in fullness and learning the brilliant tricks contained within! Getting a full CLI and minimalist filesystem into a 512-byte floppy-disk boot sector is no small achievement. It's unfortunate that, unlike the IOCCC entries, BootOS is not open source.
解释 512 字节为何是硬约束——BIOS 只读一个扇区，并说明这类项目是自举链条的第一步。
512 字节的意义在于它是 PC 存储设备的标准扇区大小（软件看到的大小；新硬盘物理扇区是 4KB，但仍可按 512 字节的逻辑扇区寻址）。传统 BIOS 把启动设备的第一个扇区读入内存并跳转过去，由此开始操作系统的启动过程。普通 OS 的引导扇区会接着找到并加载 OS 的下一部分，这可能需要理解 FAT 或 NTFS 文件系统。写一个能改内存、更重要的是能执行内存的小程序，是“自举朝圣”的第一步；这个项目看起来是刻意限制自己的，但以此为起点，你可以一次 512 字节地构建下一阶段的自举。
userbinator查看英文原文
The significance of 512 bytes is that it is the standard sector size for a PC storage device (the size seen by software; newer hard drives have 4KB physical sectors, but can still be addressed as if they had 512B "logical" sectors), and a traditional BIOS reads the first sector of the boot device into memory and jumps to it in order to begin the OS part of the boot process. A normal OS bootsector would then find and load the next part of the OS, which may involve things like understanding FAT or NTFS filesystems; here's a (rather enthusiastic) analysis of many boot sectors from different versions of DOS and Windows: https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/index.html Writing a tiny program that lets you modify memory, and more importantly execute it, is the first step in the "bootstrap pilgrimage" to creating your own environment and eventually OS, but this one seems deliberately limited; nonetheless, starting with this, one can use it to create the next stage of the bootstrap, 512 bytes at a time.
同为 512 字节内核作者的实践经验：建议加函数表供程序调用内核，否则维护跳转地址很痛苦。
我也写过一个 512 字节的极小内核，是很有趣的练习（这是个很老的项目，最初完成后很久才传到 BitBucket）。我很喜欢 BootOS，你能清楚看到这种体量的 OS 必须做的取舍。我建议 BootOS 像我那样塞一张函数表进去，让程序能调用内核里的函数；否则你要么在每个程序里重写这些函数，要么内核一改就得重编译所有程序，要么得手工维护跳转地址。另外，我正在大改 saxos，加入非常简单的多任务（已能用），目标是内核加载一个 512 字节的 GUI，程序在 GUI 里的终端中运行，之后再让程序能往窗口里绘图。
bArray查看英文原文
I have also developed a very small kernel in 512 bytes, it's a fun exercise [1] (this is a really old project that was uploaded to BitBucket long after it initially started). I quite like this BootOS project, you can of course see the compromises that any OS this size has to make. I would make a recommendation to the BootOS project which is to squeeze a function table as I have done in order to allow programs to call functions in the kernel. If not, you either end up re-writing these functions for each of your programs, you have to recompile your programs any time you change your kernel or you end up trying to maintain jump positions. For those still reading, I'm working on a large overhaul of saxos which includes very simple multi-tasking (currently working). The intention will be to have the kernel load a 512 byte GUI on top and then for the programs to have access to a terminal within the GUI. Once that's working I then want to move towards also allowing programs to draw to the Window, but that also brings its own issues. [1] https://bitbucket.org/danielbarry/saxoperatingsystem/src/master/KERNEL/KERN.ASM
指出它其实依赖 BIOS 中断、更像极简文件系统，价值主要在极致的体积美学与怀旧。
它比起操作系统，更像一个功能明显受限的极简文件系统，依赖 INT 13h——也就是说它假定 BIOS 里已有大量机器码可用。对新世代来说，这除了 code golf 之外似乎没什么实际用途。但从怀旧角度看，它把我带回了 demoscene 时代，我仍怀念 fr-041:debris 那种不到 199KB、却能看 7 分 20 秒的惊艳作品。
ChrisCinelli查看英文原文
It seems that this more than a OS is a minimal file system with a obvious limited feature set that relay on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INT_13H - It assumes that a BIOS that contains a lot more machine code is available. For the new generations this will seem not to have any real applications beyond code golfing. But from a nostalgic point of view, it brings me back to the demoscene era. I still fell a wistful longing for the old days thinking to fr-041:debris ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq2llbP52Zo ) 7:20 minutes of awesomeness in less than 199 Kb. BTW, I just google it and apparently there is plenty of events going on... Coming very soon: https://www.assembly.org/summer19/
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