Re: [9fans] Scanners

[Charles Forsyth <forsyth@terzarima.net>]

>Reality is that the rate of introduction/change of hardware/silicon is too fast
>for any small - or even 'medium sized' team (FreeBSD for example) to keep up
>with on their own... and that gap is widening.

that's not usually the biggest problem, although it's true that lack of time
can be a problem: it's the lack of (reasonably) accurate
documentation (independent of the source of some convoluted driver written by
someone who clearly doesn't do it for fun).
in the days when you could download a register-level description from
such-and-such a manufacturer, given enough incentive it was only a matter of time
and effort to drive the chip. now, a fairly non-trivial psychic ability is needed too.

i don't know why i'm replying to these. this topic has been re-hashed
periodically, and if anyone is keen actually to implement any of these helpful bits of advice
to test their ideas, i'm sure iwp9 would be a great venue to show the results.