CST 334- Week 2

This week, I spent a lot of time learning scheduling algorithms. This includes: FIFO, which runs the jobs in the order they arrive, SJF, which runs the shortest job first and so fourth, STCF, which determines which job has the least amount of time left, every time a new job enters and reschedules the jobs using this information, and Round Robin, which then slices each job into a certain time frame, taking turns to run each slice. Each one has their pros and cons, depending on what is needed. Take for example how Round Robin has the fastest response time but the average turnaround time suffers. FIFO makes sense, but if the job that starts first takes a large amount of time, the remaining jobs will suffer in performance, which can affect the turnaround time.

In addition to these concepts, I spent a tremendous amount of time trying to figure out what style works best for me when it comes to make calculations on the average response time and turnaround time. It is easy to get lost in the computation when you forget that at a certain time interval, another job would enter the queue. Depending on which schedule I am to consider the calculations for, it affects my ability to remember the rules as I am drawing my diagram. Due to the number of times I messed up trying to understand the patterns, algorithms, and solve problems, I thought using a spreadsheet that I could just fill in would help save some time, but pen and paper worked best.