The first project for CS 159 (Parallel Processing) has been released. It covers the use of fork in C, as an example of what concurrent and parallel execution looks like but without going into the more interesting (and reserved for later in the course) software details.

The project also touches on an interesting bit of system I/O handling---buffering. I did not realise how the different modes of running applications handled the buffer differently; buffer handling makes a significant difference in the output of the programs in this project. Perhaps more will be learnt in CS 149 (Operating Systems)?

Hopefully I learn this material well enough to use it in my personal projects and future coursework, and not just enough to pass the course by.