From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,55958fd991db66fe X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-09-13 08:34:04 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.stealth.net!news.stealth.net!feed.cgocable.net!read1.cgocable.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3D82056A.4090201@cogeco.ca> From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Advantage of XML based GUI? (was Re: Ada-inspired OS/Language) References: <4519e058.0209101828.cb5ff85@posting.google.com> <3d7f9d3f.920665532@news.cis.dfn.de> <3d80b566.992395741@news.cis.dfn.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:34:02 -0400 NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.150.168.167 X-Complaints-To: abuse@cogeco.ca X-Trace: read1.cgocable.net 1031931439 24.150.168.167 (Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:37:19 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 11:37:19 EDT Organization: Cogeco Cable Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28936 Date: 2002-09-13T11:34:02-04:00 List-Id: Nick Roberts wrote: > On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:02:53 +0000 (UTC), Preben Randhol > strongly typed: >>On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 19:48:28 GMT, Nick Roberts wrote: ... >>I have started to read a bit on AdaOS and I have two questions. When it >>comes to device drivers how are they going to be implemented. I mean one >>of the problems Linux has is that one have to make all the device >>drivers onself and somethimes this means reverse engineering. Would one >>need to do the same for AdaOS or could on easily port the linux >>drivers? > > Currently, I plan to write 'native' device drivers (in Ada) for AdaOS. I > intend to go to the original hardware documentation wherever posisble, and > write the drivers properly. I don't think it's unfair to suggest that most > device drivers (even commercial ones) tend be of remarkably poor quality. Just be aware that the specs don't always tell you the whole story. By looking at the code for existing drivers you can save yourself a lot of grief by examining the issues that the driver author had to contend with. You'll also see where he had to punt. You might punt differently, but looking at existing driver code can be extremely helpful. 8-) One area that is particularly sensitive in this area is "probing" at initialization time. A lot of PC hardware presents a "no win" situation -- particularly older hardware. -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg