*BSD News Article 18179


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From: murrayc@hansford.com (Charles H. Murray)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Good manuals?
Message-ID: <fMNPsAMEBh107h@hansford.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 22:08:31 -0700
References: <741895288snz@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> <1993Jun30.034017.12142@henson.cc.wwu.edu> <21i7h9$e34@umd5.umd.edu>
Organization: The Hansford Group - Contract Software Engineering and Consulting
Lines: 23

In <21i7h9$e34@umd5.umd.edu> mark@roissy.umd.edu (Mark Sienkiewicz) writes:
>BEWARE:  I have never seen a *good* reference for writing device drivers for
>*any* system.  You usually have to figure out a lot for yourself.  It's
>kind of sink-or-swim, and you *will* sink a lot.  I offer you these two
>bits of advice:
>	1- Hang in there.  Most people take quite a while to learn.
>	2- Make lots of backups.

	3- Get source code examples for existing drivers

I once was faced with writing device drivers for a Stardent Titan (can you
say Kabota Pacific), with ZERO systems programming level documentation.
I was able to complete my task by looking at existing device drivers for
this architecture.

Your point is well taken.  The best reference I have seen for writing
device drivers was for (are you ready for this) MS-DOS ...

-- 
Charles H. Murray                       "Performing Rocket Science at
Software Engineering Consultant          Orbital Sciences Corporation
Breckenridge, Colorado USA               Chantilly, Virginia USA"
murrayc@hansford.com