About this course

Advanced Systems Programming

• What is this course about?
• What are your expectations?
• What is the plan for the semester?

Who is teaching this course?

• Prof. Dr. Pascal Bormann
• New professor since WS25/26
• h_da alumnus (CS master’s in 2018)

About this course

• You will learn systems programming using the Rust programming language
• Very programming-heavy
• Goals:
  • Learn systems thinking: Precise, efficient and clear code
  • Learn modern tools and abstractions (compared to C/C++)
• Prerequisites:
  • PAD1&2, RA, BS
  • Know your way around C++, memory, pointers

About you

• What are your expectations for this course?
• What is your background?
• Time for an activity!

Plan for the semester

• 14 lecture blocks this semester
• Weekly labs, also 14 blocks
  • Lab starts one week later than lecture (17.10.2025)
  • Lab attendence is mandatory
  • No-show during first lab means you are removed from the course
• Lab structure
  • Incremental exercises
  • Graded group project (~second half of lab)

Lecture topics

• Introduction to systems programming (1 block)
• The design philosophy of Rust (1-2 blocks)
• The fundamentals of memory management and safety (2-3 blocks)
• Zero-overhead abstractions (2 blocks)
• Error handling (1 block)
• Systems level I/O (1 block)
• Fearless concurrency (2 blocks)
• Performance, profiling and tracing (1 block)

Additional information

• Lecture script can be found here: https://pascalbormann.de/asp_book/preface.html
• For the lab, we will use Moodle, the assignment sheets are uploaded here: https://lernen.h-da.de/course/view.php?id=16513
  • Enroll with password: all_hail_the_crabs
• Communication with me via mail: pascal.bormann@h-da.de

ASP Bingo

• Play bingo by paying attention and win snacks!
• Grab your bingo sheet now!

Any questions?