Project 10: Simple Windowing Machine (SWIM)

Overview

The Simple Windowing Machine (SWIM) is, as its name implies, a simple but functional operating system. It has the following features:

Four distinct windows, each of which can run a program or edit a file.
- An additional window displays the process manager.
An interpreter for a simple programming language.
- This will be provided for you to use.
Dynamic memory allocation for user programs, with a copying garbage collector.
A disk for persistent storage, simulated using a RAM disk

To begin this project, you need to have completed the preceding projects to at least Level 2:

Setup

Use your repository for the Bare Metal Editor as the repository for this project. Add the following items to Cargo.toml under [dependencies]:

compiler_builtins = { version = "0.1", features = ["mem"] }
simple_interp = {git = "https://github.com/gjf2a/simple_interp"}
gc_headers = {git = "https://github.com/gjf2a/gc_headers" }
ramdisk = {git = "https://github.com/gjf2a/ramdisk"}
Link to the GitHub repository for your garbage collector. Use the format below, but substitute your own repository name and URL:
- gc_heap = {git = "https://github.com/gjf2a/gc_heap" }
Link to the GitHub repository for your file system. Again, use the format below, but substitute your own repository name and URL:
- file_system_solution = {git = "https://github.com/gjf2a/file_system_solution" }

Level 1: Incorporating the File System

Add the following constants to lib.rs:

const TASK_MANAGER_WIDTH: usize = 10;
const WIN_REGION_WIDTH: usize = BUFFER_WIDTH - TASK_MANAGER_WIDTH;
const MAX_OPEN: usize = 16;
const BLOCK_SIZE: usize = 256;
const NUM_BLOCKS: usize = 255;
const MAX_FILE_BLOCKS: usize = 64;
const MAX_FILE_BYTES: usize = MAX_FILE_BLOCKS * BLOCK_SIZE;
const MAX_FILES_STORED: usize = 30;
const MAX_FILENAME_BYTES: usize = 10;

Modify the following constant from the original template:
```
const WIN_WIDTH: usize = (WIN_REGION_WIDTH - 3) / 2;
```
Add a FileSystem object to the SwimInterface.
Use open_create(), write(), and close() at startup (i.e., in the SwimInterface default() method) to add the four files below to the file system:
- Note: I highly recommend using Rust’s raw strings to encode these.
Each file is listed in each of the four main windows. Each file listing is given in three columns, each of which may contain up to 10 rows.
In each window, one of the files should be highlighted.
If you use the left-arrow and right-arrow keys, it should cycle through the files, highlighting the current file.

After completing Level 1, SWIM should look like this:

File Text

`hello`

print("Hello, world!")

`nums`

print(1)
print(257)

`average`

sum := 0
count := 0
averaging := true
while averaging {
    num := input("Enter a number:")
    if (num == "quit") {
        averaging := false
    } else {
        sum := (sum + num)
        count := (count + 1)
    }
}
print((sum / count))

`pi`

sum := 0
i := 0
neg := false
terms := input("Num terms:")
while (i < terms) {
    term := (1.0 / ((2.0 * i) + 1.0))
    if neg {
        term := -term
    }
    sum := (sum + term)
    neg := not neg
    i := (i + 1)
}
print((4 * sum))

Level 2: Program Execution

Add another set of constants to lib.rs:

const MAX_TOKENS: usize = 100; 
const MAX_LITERAL_CHARS: usize = 15;
const STACK_DEPTH: usize = 20; 
const MAX_LOCAL_VARS: usize = 10; 
const HEAP_SIZE: usize = 256; 
const MAX_HEAP_BLOCKS: usize = HEAP_SIZE;

Add the following import to the top of lib.rs:

use simple_interp::{Interpreter, InterpreterOutput, ArrayString};

When the user hits r when a file is highlighted, the file should run.
- To run a program, create an Interpreter object for it using Interpreter::new(). The program text (as a &str) will be the parameter to new().
- The Interpreter object’s type will be Interpreter<MAX_TOKENS, MAX_LITERAL_CHARS, STACK_DEPTH, MAX_LOCAL_VARS, WIN_WIDTH, CopyingHeap<HEAP_SIZE, MAX_HEAP_BLOCKS>> The Interpreter type is defined in the simple_interp crate.
  - If you created a generational collector, use the following type instead: Interpreter<MAX_TOKENS, MAX_LITERAL_CHARS, STACK_DEPTH, MAX_LOCAL_VARS, WIN_WIDTH, GenerationalHeap<HEAP_SIZE, MAX_HEAP_BLOCKS, 2>>
- You will need to create a data type that implements the InterpreterOutput trait in order to receive output from the interpreter.
  - Suggestion: The data type representing each of your four windows would be a good choice to implement this trait. Implementing a trait looks something like this in Rust source code:

struct DataType {
   /* Your data declarations go here */
}

impl InterpreterOutput for DataType {
   fn print(&mut self, chars: &[u8]) {
      /* Your code here */
   }
}

The only method you will need to call on an Interpreter object is .tick(), which expects as a parameter an object of that type that implements the InterpreterOutput trait.
Use the tick() method to execute one instruction in one program.
- If any programs are running, exactly one of them should execute an instruction.
- If tick() returns TickResult::AwaitInput, block the process until input is available.
- Once input is available, use the provide_input() method to send the input to the program.
While the file is running, if the user hits F6, the program should immediately stop and return to the file selector.
Ensure that all processes have a fair opportunity to run on the CPU. Again, only one process should run per tick().
The number of instructions executed by each process should be shown in the right window, as seen below:

Additional suggestions:

Get the programs that do not use input (hello, nums) working before those that do use input (average, pi).
To store the input buffer, use the ArrayString struct from simple_interp. It won’t display anything, but it is a very convenient input buffer. Features include:
- Easy conversion to &str.
- You can create formatted strings using write!().

Level 3: File Editor

The kernel should not panic under any circumstances.
- If an error occurs, the user should receive sufficient information to understand the error and continue activity.
When F5 is selected, the user can enter a filename of up to 10 characters in the top window.
- When the user types the backspace (Unicode \u{8}), it erases the previous character.
- When the user types the Enter key:
  - An empty file with the given name is opened, created, and closed on the disk
  - The filename is cleared from the top window
  - The file listings in the four quadrant windows are updated to include the new file
If you type the e key, the highlighted file should be loaded into the editor. At this point, we switch from file navigation to editing.
- The selected filename appears as part of the window header, after the function key.
- SWIM opens the file and reads its contents so as to be visible. It then closes the file.
- As with the filename editing, each keystroke appears in the appropriate window, with the backspace operating properly as well.
- Entering F6 uses open_create() to reopen the file. It writes the contents of the editor’s buffer to disk, then closes the file, restoring the window to the file selection screen.
- When the file is re-opened, from any of the windows, the changes saved earlier should be reflected.

When creating a file named test, SWIM should look like this:

When navigating to edit the file test in the F1 buffer, it should look like this:

While editing the file in the F1 buffer, it should look like this:

After saving the file using F6 and reopening it in the F2 buffer, it should look like this:

After closing the F2 buffer and running the program in the F3 buffer, it should look like this:

Acknowledgement

This assignment was adapted from materials developed by Philipp Oppermann.