Kernel notes

I’ve started a new wiki page intended to give OS maintainers/developers an overview of the kernel, and information about any important aspects of its operation (e.g. exactly how things like IRQsema get used). It’s still a bit bare at the moment, but expect it to be fleshed out over the next few days.

Also if anyone has any idea what (if anything) “PMF” stands for (as in the PMF folder in the kernel sources) then I’d be interested in knowing because it’s been bugging me for a while :-)

PMF – Paul Fellows? Google shows he worked for Acorn and was involved with RISC OS.

Paul Fellows?

• Maybe
• Maybe not

If it’s someone’s initials then they must have worked at Acorn during the BBC/Arthur phase. The PMF folder mainly contains code that’s the RISC OS implementation of BBC-era things like OS_Byte and OS_Word, the printer/serial/keyboard/sound/speech buffers, etc.

Unfortunately, the early parts of the early kernel changelog don’t list any names. And the really early bits are missing altogether. There may be a few source comments hiding somewhere, however – I haven’t spent any time looking yet.

must have worked at Acorn during the BBC/Arthur phase

"The Arthur project team, led by Paul Fellows […]"

Ah, OK. It’s probably him then :-)

Software Manager at Acorn Computers 1985 – 1988: you could try asking him. He seems to know Steve Revill.

I do remember hearing that the PMF directory was named after its original author, so yes it’s probably Paul Fellows.