** Reply to message from John Poltorak <jp@warpix.org> on Wed, 27 Oct 2004
17:48:56 +0100
> I'm sure that learning to port linux device drivers to OS/2 would be a
> worthwhile exercise, although I have no idea how it is done, but we
> already have sound drivers and a TV card driver based on Linux code and am
> sure acquiring such expertise is a must if we are to have access to a full
> range of hardware from OS/2.
It's really more than just the concept of porting here. I look at it more as
taking advantage of research already done - why re-invent the wheel?
Most of the Unix ports I have done fall into two distinct classes: those
application performing essentially platform-neutral functions and those that
perform functions specific to the platform. The former are reasonable
candidates for ports - replace a few platform-specific operations with
substitutes and go for it.
For the latter, the base code will provide nothing more than framework and data
because the underlying support model has changed. This is especially true at
the device driver level where Linux sources can tell you what to tell a device
and what to expect as a result but HOW to tell the device something and HOW to
retrieve a response are another matter. Such things as thread models and
inter-task communications, even the mechanism used to run the code changes,
require a total re-write. This is typically the case for device drivers and
GUI interfaces.
--
Will Honea <whonea@codenet.net>
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