> Linux> Its name is Project UDI. The main objective of this effort is
> Linux> to provide an interface to the device drivers that is common
> Linux> to all UDI compliant OS's. That means that to port a driver
> Linux> from one OS to the other, you don't need to _change_ the
> Linux> source code, but just compile it in the new OS's compiler. I
> Linux> believe that this is a great initiative and I think that Linux
> Linux> could be inside that group.
>
> Having written drivers for various operating systems, my immediate
> reaction (without looking at the web page you mentioned) is that this
> is an idea that makes little or no sense.
>
> Most drivers are largely OS specific code (the actual hardware
> fondling is in the minority). Abstracting that in a meaningful way to
> a meaningful range of operating systems is unlikely to succeed, unless
> you don't mind having no performance at all.
I also wrote/maintained drivers for several OS's (including SCO
Openserver, Unixware, BSDI, FreeBSD and, of course, Linux) and there is
one thing that is what makes the port withou source code changes
impossible: the incompatibility between the OS's driver-kernel interfaces.
Even though the idea of creating a common interface to all OS's seems
feasible, you have mentioned a very important issue to consider:
performance. I don't even dare to talk about that anymore. Great point.
Regards,
Ivan Passos
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