Re: [9fans] General question about hosted interfaces

["Douglas A. Gwyn" <DAGwyn@null.net>]

bwc@borf.com wrote:
> I've found both the 3com site and the Intel developer's site to be useful.
> It still takes digging, but I've been lucky.  The smaller companies are
> a problem.  Many of their products are `clones' and they don't even bother
> to write a manual.

As someone who is trying to restore old computer systems, or even
simply getting a 9-track 1/2" magtape drive working on a modern PC,
I keep finding that manufacturers of > ~10 yr. old equipment claim
to have no corporate knowledge of their old products, not even
documentation on file.  One gets the feeling that a lot of stuff
is developed by small ad hoc teams that are later disbanded
without having bothered to adequately document their work.

> Also, the PCMCIA, PCI, USB, and other consortia provide the baseline
> description of much of this stuff.  The vendors often just say what
> parts they really do.  ANSI for the ATA spec, for example.  Since
> there are many vendors playing in the same space this makes sense.
> Back when only DEC defined what a VAX was, each peripheral's documentation
> would fully describe that peripheral.  Now they say `vesa video controller'
> and just describe what makes them different.

Partly, it's a difference in the user population.  In the Good Old Days,
a noticeable fraction of the controllers went to sites that needed the
detailed documentation.  E.g. in order to write a UNIX device driver,
which was originally not such an intimidating task as it is now.
Today, only a handful of people (at most) develop low-level device
support, while maybe a million units are sold to end users who are
disinclined to buy anything that is accompanied by technical info.