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Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Unified Driver Interface
« on: December 10, 2003, 04:10:30 PM »
Following on from the SkyOS thread, I was wondering what thoughts people have on a Unified Driver interface.

Something that would allow all the small OS projects to share drivers and increase their usefullenss.

Offline dammy

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2003, 04:34:54 PM »
How about that M$ driver wrapper for Linux?  Could that be ported over?

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Offline Amiga1200PPC

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2003, 04:38:46 PM »
Short: no.
 

Offline pixie

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2003, 04:52:16 PM »
I thought that AROS had a similar driver concept...


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Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2003, 04:54:11 PM »
Quote

dammy wrote:
How about that M$ driver wrapper for Linux?  Could that be ported over?

Dammy


A lot of the AROS devs have said that it would be perfectly possible to use Linux drivers in AROS... but have never really gone into much detail about it.

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2003, 04:55:21 PM »
I think it'd be great. Heck, I'd love to see a unified driver interface in AmigaOS alone, all this nonsense of having to develop for prometheus/Zorro/Grex/Mediator/AmigaOne all being somewhat different only makes for less drivers everyone can use. OpenPCI was a good attempt but was foiled by someone not wanting their product to benefit from sharing drivers. And another someone only allowed their product supported under conditions that prevented something else good to happen.

And if no one can cooperate to make this possible inside a single OS, I don't see it happening across multiple OSes in our little community. :(
 

Offline xisp

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2003, 07:19:52 PM »
You mean this?
 

Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2003, 09:35:30 PM »
Quote

xisp wrote:
You mean this?


Yup, that has been suggested, but I notice that there don't seem to be many drivers for it, and that SCO are involved... two downers... But I think someone more qualified than me should look at it :-D

Offline KennyR

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2003, 09:38:05 PM »
If you're trying to copy the Windows driver system, don't, because it's one of the worst inventions in computing history. Amiga is amiga because we don't have anything like this, and never should have.
 

Offline bloodlineTopic starter

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2003, 09:47:34 PM »
Quote

KennyR wrote:
If you're trying to copy the Windows driver system, don't, because it's one of the worst inventions in computing history. Amiga is amiga because we don't have anything like this, and never should have.


No, I just think there needs to be a standard driver interface. This would mean the all the OS projects that are out there AROS, SkyOS, AtheOS, ReactOS, NewOS, OBeOS etc.. etc.. etc... can all use the same driver.

Imagine that! If someone writes a Nvidia Graphics driver for AtheOS (for example), then any of the other OS projects could use it without the need to port it, just download it and install it.

Offline JetFireDX

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2003, 10:46:29 PM »
I think a unified driver system shared through all of the "hobby" OSes out there would be great. It would certainly cut back on the work that was needed for any specific OS to get support for hardware. . . but how to coordinate this will each of the seperate teams/OSes? Each team is going to want it done their way (probably closest to how they already have their driver system implemented so they don't need to change a whole lot) and in the end I don't think they could all come together on it. It would be great if they could though.
 

Offline whabang

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2003, 10:52:48 PM »
How about a specific driver standard and a wrapper for each OS' driver system?
Beating the dead horse since 2002.
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2003, 10:57:08 PM »
@whabang

Well, I have often thought about that. Some nice open polymorphic interface for devices of all kinds would be ideal as the wrapper. Given OS's can then implement the interface in whatever way suits them best.

Mind you, any such suggestions I have ever made about creating wrapper systems for each (amiga) OS has usually been shot down in flames by people lecturing "it cant be done, you should simply do it our way..."
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Offline whabang

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #13 on: December 10, 2003, 11:00:07 PM »
Well, such a sytem would definitely boost the number of availible drivers for every OS that supports it.
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Offline Karlos

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Re: Unified Driver Interface
« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2003, 11:05:42 PM »
Youd need a well defined heirarchy for such a system. Devices by their very nature suit OOP design very well.

I wouldn't hold your breath though :-(
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