The Brown University Student Operating System

Abstract

The tenet that students taking a computer science course (even, and especially, an introductory one) should get actual machine experience has gradually been accepted in the past few years. The Brown University Student Operating System (SOS) provides: 1) such a “cut-down” assembler; 2) an interpreter for simulating the simplified machine whose code the assembler produces; 3) a control program which optimizes program storage, provides line-by-line program editing, and gathers operating statistics; 4) a grading program for the four major problems in one of the introductory computer science courses using SOS. Our experience in the fall semester of 1966 indicates that we can provide assembly language teaching and processing to students of varying backgrounds at costs comparable to those mentioned for algebraic compilers.