
Ask HN: Is any of Dave Cutler's code open source? - wkoszek
Just read an article from Microsoft on Dave Cutler receiving CHM Fellow title, and was wondering if any of his code is publicly available.
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ryanburk
I had the privilege to work on the windows kernel team in the NT5 then XP
days. I really wish they could share some of his code. it was the cleanest,
well segmented, and commented code I've ever seen. it made the system much
more maintainable and understandable, in areas that are inherently complex.
great interfaces with a clear understanding of what was going in and coming
out. and it helped all the other devs raise their game.

~~~
wrs
At Microsoft the joke, which was funny but also pretty much true, is that when
MS invents a new "top of the ladder" engineering title (Distinguished
Engineer, Fellow, Senior Fellow, etc.), Dave Cutler always gets it first. His
influence on Windows is huge. As just one example, there basically wouldn't be
a 64-bit Windows if he hadn't personally forced it into existence.

~~~
ryanburk
there is exactly one "senior technical fellow" at the company - davec.

while is wasn't entirely a solo effort - folks like forrest foltz, landy wang,
etc were involved - it was amazing coming in on a monday morning and seeing
the email that said "sync your enlistments and rebuild, you'll see a new amd64
version" and 95% of the system was now building and running for x64. it was
crazy.

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yannickt
I have been wondering the same thing. Also, Larry Osterman had hinted that
Gary Kimura (one of the core 12 who joined Microsoft with Cutler) had an
interesting coding style, but I don't think he ever got around to writing
about it. I have always been curious to know what was so interesting about it.

[https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/08/27/it...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/08/27/it-
was-20-years-ago-today/)

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defvar
Out of curiosity, I just googled around and found some code samples:
[https://www.google.com/#q=David+Cutler+davec+site%3Apudn.com...](https://www.google.com/#q=David+Cutler+davec+site%3Apudn.com+inurl%3Asourcecode%2Fwindows%2F248345%2Fwin2k)

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Hrundi
Quick warning to people wanting to take a look: This code is part of a famous
code leak that happened 12 years ago, in which large portions (a 200mb rar
file) of the Windows NT/2000 source code found its way to the internet thanks
to a company named Mainsoft being hacked. You'll notice that there's a bunch
of .eml files.

There's actual kernel code in here, reading this code could most likely
prevent from working on WINE or ReactOS and who knows what else could apply
under your jurisdiction.

It's funny that his code is right there for us to see, but we shouldn't see
it!

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swah
This code is great, I just wish you guys could see it!

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jordigh
Btw, publicly available isn't the same as open source. You probably just want
to look at this code, not modify it, redistribute it, or sell it. Right?

~~~
wkoszek
Publicly available to me means: "for free, but in the binary form". Open
Source = can have some constraints like CDDL license for example, but I can at
least read the source code.

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justinclift
Your understanding of Open Source is ok (for you), but not in line with the
rest of the world's use of the term. ;)

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ekr
It's not the first time I'm mentioning this around here, but the WRK 1.2 is
quite easy to find online. Surely, there are some license issues with that,
but with a simple google query you run into something like this :
[http://gate.upm.ro/os/LABs/Windows_OS_Internals_Curriculum_R...](http://gate.upm.ro/os/LABs/Windows_OS_Internals_Curriculum_Resource_Kit-
ACADEMIC/WindowsResearchKernel-WRK/WRK-v1.2/base/ntos/) .

Here you've got most of the kernel code of the Windows Server 2003. It's clear
that Dave Cutler had a great influence on it.

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lobster_johnson
If you're a university student, Microsoft has an academic program where you
get access to the "Windows research kernel", which is the NT kernel.

Also, the Windows 2000 code was leaked back in 2004; there's a torrent
floating around in your nearest pirate bay. Disclaimer: I'm not promoting
doing anything illegal.

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lambdafunc
I heard a lot of times that he wrote bulk of the NT kernel himself, is that
really correct? I feel like a lot of people in his team are not given enough
credit, and I also feel like he is being pushed as another tech hero.

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chmaynard
You might want to take a look at the OpenVMS project. If "Open" means open
source, I would expect to see Cutler's designs and code in the repository.

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Sanddancer
OpenVMS is closed source. The Open there refers to DEC's (then Compaq, then
HP) use of pen standards like TCP/IP, instead of proprietary standards like
DECnet.

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dsr_
You can get a free hobbyist license for OpenVMS, but I don't know if you get
source (possibly) and it certainly isn't shareable/reuseable.

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ma2rten
I might be mistaken, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he is more of
an designer and architect than someone who writes a lot of code himself.

If you want to understand his designs it might help to read the book Windows
Internals.

~~~
wrs
IIRC, he wrote a lot of original NT code himself. But you're proposing a false
dichotomy. The core NT team consisted of people who designed and architected
their code, and then wrote it. A programming technique sadly rare in today's
world!

