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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:3075 comp.os.linux.misc:21284 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.sprintlink.net!indirect.com!usenet From: waycott@indirect.com (John Waycott) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: source of TCP/IP (was I hope this wont ignite a major flame ...) Date: 7 Aug 1994 06:18:10 GMT Organization: Internet Direct, Inc. Lines: 41 Message-ID: <321ub2$k71@herald.indirect.com> References: <31od8d$15l@fw.novatel.ca> <31pc9l$ctp@oscar.agcs.com> <Cu0L6w.Ms1@calcite.rhyolite.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: s170.phxslip.indirect.com X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.91.6 In article <Cu0L6w.Ms1@calcite.rhyolite.com>, vjs@calcite.rhyolite.com (Vernon Schryver) says: > >In article <31pc9l$ctp@oscar.agcs.com> robertsw@agcs.com (Wallace Roberts) writes: >>hpeyerl@sidney.novatel.ca (Herb Peyerl) writes: > >> ... >>>This is an example of some of the Linux device-drivers I've seen: >>> >>> short error = rx_status & 0x3C00; >>> outw(inw(ioaddr + 0x0A) | 0x00C0, ioaddr + 0x0A); >>> >>>... the above is completely meaningless. >> >>if you're writing (or fixing) a device driver, you are expected to have >>the h/w manuals handy. comments are unnecessary if you have the device > >If you had any significant professional experience, you'd know that is >"horse pucky." In real life, you often, probably usually do not have >the manual when you need to make a fix. You usually must write drivers Absolutely true. Even worse is when the hardware has a bug and the above code is there to get around it. When Joe Maintenance programmer gets the job of making some changes, he analyzes this code, looks at the manual and determines the code is junk and promptly removes it. I've seen this happen many times. > >Wrong. People who write garbage code like that are amatuers who won't >get the job offers from outfits worth working for. Unfortunately, they do get job offers and cause the rest of us grief. Even more unfortunate is most managers don't know better and even prefer this kind of programming because they can get the product out the door quickly and beat the competition. Of course, now the original programmer has left the company and the manager can't understand why the maintenance programmers are having such a difficult time trying to get all the bugs out of the new feature they just added. ----------------------------------- John Waycott waycott@indirect.com