From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" Message-ID: <3B4F052A.56A2AAAA@null.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <20010712214742.0560A199C0@mail.cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] General question about hosted interfaces Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 14:53:38 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: ca59ac8a-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 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.