The QNX 4 Real-time Operating System

With the POSIX version, QNX brings its singular vision into the mainstream. But QNX is much more than just another UNIX-like product with real-world aspirations. It is a comprehensive suite of software which lets designers create finely-tuned solutions to complex problems. QNX does this with a unique blend of standard tools and carefully chosen extensions. In particular, QNX depends on the exchange of discrete packets of information--messages--to handle virtually all inter-process communication. This paradigm applies to all levels of programming, from device drivers to file systems to the LAN.

That power comes at the price of complexity and a long learning curve. Understanding the underlying concepts and tools is critical to using QNX effectively. This book walks you through the fundamentals and gently leads you into the more complex areas of program design and development in a distributed, message-based environment. It also goes beyond programming to help you use QNX's diverse set of commands, including system administration and disk recovery procedures. Everyone from new QNX programmers to seasoned developers will find this an ideal combination.

Briefly, the book covers:
* operating system concepts: processes, messages, timers, shared memory, etc.
* program development: editing, compiling, debugging, backing up
* software architecture-designing distributed, co-operating processes
* real-time considerations, such as priorities, scheduling and device drivers
* using and programming the command shell
* basic and advanced commands (both POSIX and those unique to QNX)
* using and programming the three QNX windowing systems

The text is supported with hundreds of diagrams and tested samples of code.