enatha.ng ;

I’ve found diagrams and comics to be quite useful in understanding topics and digesting information. There are a few reasons for this:

  1. Diagrams are a visually rich medium where the layout can convey as much information as the content of the diagram
  2. Because diagrams are non-linear, they allow a progressive disclosure of complexity, where the viewer can mentally zoom in/out freely to understand relationships
  3. They offer a fun and approachable way to learn about topics that are otherwise intimidating or opaque

Therefore, for my current OS project, I’ve decided to diagram each chapter of MIT’s xv6 textbook and OS. I hope they’ll help reduce the time between “I have no idea what’s going on” and “I have some idea of what’s going on”.

Sample

xv6 Chapter 1 diagram thumbnail

You can find the diagram(s) in the repo here: https://github.com/enathang/reference-diagrams/tree/main (Diagrams will be uploaded as I finish them)

And you can find the xv6 textbook here: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2018/xv6.html