From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jan 24 7: 1:49 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mass.cdrom.com (castles516.castles.com [208.214.165.80]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CA6914E23 for ; Mon, 24 Jan 2000 07:01:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from msmith@mass.cdrom.com) Received: from mass.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mass.cdrom.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA11646; Mon, 24 Jan 2000 07:09:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from msmith@mass.cdrom.com) Message-Id: <200001241509.HAA11646@mass.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: Chuck Robey Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 24 Jan 2000 01:47:43 EST." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 07:09:35 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It > > > certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to > > > seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate > > > comments, and so what you see from the code is mainly tactics, not > > > strategy. > > > > You miss my point; you don't want to be writing a driver until you know > > what you're doing. Documentation on an OS' driver interface won't teach > > you that; it's something that's really only ever gleaned from experience. > > The problem is, you can't even find what the interfaces are. Reading the > code isn't very useful if you can't even find the right place to start > from. At least the interface points could be listed, so that someone > would know where to begin. Listing the interface points won't help unless you know which ones are relevant to what you're trying to do. I say it again; first you need to know how to write a device driver, then you need to know what the available tools are to get the job done. Having only the latter does not help at all with the former. -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message