Papershelf

I read papers and books on systems, distributed systems, databases, and algorithms. I prefer things that are practical or that change how I reason about design. Below are notes and short comments on what I’ve read.

  1. The Design of the Unix Operating System Maurice J. Bach Book 1986

    Classic systems read. Still relevant for understanding how OS abstractions map to real implementations.

  2. End-to-End Arguments in System Design Saltzer, Reed, Clark ACM SIGCOMM 1984

    Why intelligence belongs at the endpoints. Influenced a lot of how we think about the internet and distributed systems.

  3. In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (Raft) Diego Ongaro, John Ousterhout USENIX ATC 2014

    Readable alternative to Paxos. Good companion to implementing or debugging consensus in practice.