Device Driver Stability

[Jeffrey Mulligan]

don at andante.att.com (Don Mitchell) writes:

>We have to support scanners, GPIB devices of various sorts, DR11 devices,
>and strange frame buffers.  A lot of these guys don't keep up with current
>SunOS very fast,

And even when they do, you have to shell out more bucks for the new
software.  Oh, and by the way, that old version of the hardware that you
have is no longer supported in this software release, so that will be
another $2000 for to bring your hardware up to the current revision.

>but I think SUN must be blamed for gratuitous changes to
>the kernel in this area.

It would at least be nice if there were a document distributed with the
new releases detailing the changes to the interface, making it easier to
fix software for which one has the source.  (I would not be surprised to
learn that this document exists, and if so, how do I get a copy?)

We are struggling with with this problem now.

                 Tired of upgrading OS's instead of doing research,

	Jeff Mulligan (jbm at eos.arc.nasa.gov)
	NASA/Ames Research Ctr., Mail Stop 262-2, Moffett Field CA, 94035
	(415) 604-3745