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The HelenOS project was formed in late October 2004, when the six
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The HelenOS project was formed in late October 2004, when the six
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developers grouped and decided to adopt previous work of {\JJ} on the
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developers grouped and decided to adopt previous work of {\JJ} on the
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SPARTAN kernel\footnote{The SPARTAN kernel has been developed by {\JJ}
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SPARTAN kernel\footnote{The SPARTAN kernel has been developed by {\JJ}
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since 2001.} as a foundation for their new operating system.
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since 2001.} as a foundation for their new operating system.
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\section{Specification}
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The team had then worked on a specification\cite{helenos-spec} until
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The team had then worked on a specification\cite{helenos-spec} until
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March 8, 2005. The specification was based on \MD's draft and
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March 8, 2005. The specification was based on \MD's draft and
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incorporated many suggestions from other members of the team. The
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incorporated many suggestions from other members of the team. The
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biggest part of the discussion was concerned about how many and what
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biggest part of the discussion was concerned about how many and what
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processor architectures we will support. At that time, the SPARTAN
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processor architectures we will support. At that time, the SPARTAN
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set of mandatory features of the kernel and the userspace layer
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set of mandatory features of the kernel and the userspace layer
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that had to be implemented. Besides the mandatory features, there
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that had to be implemented. Besides the mandatory features, there
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was also an optional part comprising of three research or experimental
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was also an optional part comprising of three research or experimental
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topics. We hoped to eventually find time to work on them.
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topics. We hoped to eventually find time to work on them.
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\section{Project meetings}
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After adopting our specification, we started to meet regularily every two weeks
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After adopting our specification, we started to meet regularily every two weeks
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for the sake of consultations. The regular meetings were cancelled only during
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for the sake of consultations. The regular meetings were cancelled only during
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the exam periods and summer holiday. The first meeting took place on April 28,
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the exam periods and summer holiday. The first meeting took place on April 28,
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April. There had been twenty project meetings before 1.0.0 release.
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April. There had been exactly twenty three project meetings before 1.0.0 release.
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The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics officially opened our project on June 10,
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The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics officially opened our project on June 10,
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2005. However, serious collective work on the project, preceeded by individual
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efforts of some team members, began two months later.
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\section{Planning work}
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In the beginning, we structured our work by creating three two-member teams,
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each dedicated to one new architecture (i.e. amd64, ia64 and ppc32). However,
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dividing into couples didn't work out for the amd64 and ppc32 teams. In the end,
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both of those architectures were supported only with one member of respective
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team. This might have been because of two factors. First, the collective responsibility
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for the project allowed the less motivated members to work less than others.
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Second, over the time, some developers profiled out to be good at specific tasks to which
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they later adhered and were forwarded more similar work. It was generally accepted
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within the team if one of the couple traded one architecure-specific task for another task
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2005.
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on HelenOS.
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\section{Kernel camps}
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There were two really important moments in our development process. Both of them
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took place in Harrachov, Czech Republic, where five team members moved two times, each
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time for a week of full-time intensive HelenOS development. These actions were
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called Kernel Camp 2005 and Winter Camp 2006. The former camp took place in August 2005
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and was focused on getting all the architectures into our source tree and deepening
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their support. The latter camp took place in March 2006 and was dedicated to userspace
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support. In fact, we made the second camp the deadline for userspace milestone. With the
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exception of ppc32, all ports had some support for userspace prior to the second camp.
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Both of the camps moved the project miles ahead.
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