We will consider writing style and presentation in addition to technical correctness when grading scribing and the course project. We do not want or expect poetic prose, but we will look for clarity of thought.
We strongly urge you to read the following guides:
- Tips for Writing a Technical Paper, by Jennifer Widom
- An evaluation of the Ninth SOSP Submissions, or How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper, by Roy Levin and David D. Redell
- Collected Advice on Research and Writing, by Mark Leone
This class will use LaTeX to typeset the project report, as well as to scribe. The LaTeX template you should be using is available here (current version is 0.1). If you wish to make additions or modifications to the template, please email the instructor. We welcome improvements.
We also expect users to use BibTeX for managing their bibliographys. A sample BibTeX file is included in the template.
We insist on LaTeX and BibTeX because it is the de-facto standard for scientific work in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and similar fields. Thus, graduate students (especially those at a place such as Carnegie Mellon) should know how to use it, at least at a basic level. Other technologies, such as Microsoft Word, are unsuitable and usually produce quite ugly documents.
- On my mac, I use LaTeX/BibTeX tools from mactex, I have XCode installed for "make" and similar utilies, and I use emacs (specifically Carbon Emacs)
- On windows, miktex is a reasonable choice. A faculty member at SMU has some additional documentation on getting things up and running.
- Another choice on windows is to install and use cygwin to set up a unix-like environment, complete with latex.
- On UNIX systems, you should be able to install LaTeX and BibTeX using your favorite package manager. In the Debian VM we give you, you can simply follow directions.
There will be at least 2 class presentations.
- We have a sample template that we use for this class. Feel free to create your own.
- Markus Puschel has a nice guide for giving effective presentations. I recommend you read it. Everyone in the class will likely need to develop good presentation skills.
- The Intel x86 manuals: Volume 1: Basic Architecture, Volume 2a: Instructions A-M, and Volume 2b: Instructions N-Z