From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Aug 1 2:56:42 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED3DB37B400 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 2002 02:56:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net (falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.74]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94A2143E86 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 2002 02:56:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from pool0040.cvx22-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([209.179.198.40] helo=mindspring.com) by falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 17aCh9-0005cT-00; Thu, 01 Aug 2002 02:56:35 -0700 Message-ID: <3D49058E.3AD0B0E@mindspring.com> Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 02:55:26 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Sergey Lyubka , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Assembly, Kernels and Bootstraps References: <20020731161322.O5057-100000@boise.neuroflux.com> <20020801102424.GC97092@yoda.asitatech.ie> <3D490353.8A5A07D4@mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Terry Lambert wrote: > Sergey Lyubka wrote: [ ... ] > > Linux community has an excellent 'Linux Device Drivers', > > 'Understanding The Linux Kernel' etc; [ ... ] > It's just not possible to hit a moving target (or in this case, > to document code that won't at least sit still at the interfaces). Note also that Linux has made a positive commitment to a stable DDI/DKI, so it's possible to write a device driver's book (and I will agree that the Linux Device Drivers book is an *excellent* book). They've also made a positive commitment to not changing kernel interface gratuitously; it's at least possible to start a book on the -stable branch of Linux, and then only need to "fact check" it against the most recent -stable version of Linux, before publishing with the most recent release CDROM in the jacket envelope. Part of this maturity no doubt arises because of their need to support many platforms simultaneously, rather than having a single "reference platform" that drags the other platforms, screaming, into unfamiliar and non-generic APIs. But part of it is just their commitment to provide a stable platform on which work not related to the developement of Linux itself can be based. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message