AG> If you don't know the market, no one does :-)

OS/2 device driver has trailed off to the point where I see little interest.

 AG> Essentially, anyone writing device drivers is likely to 
 AG> need all the help he
 AG> can get. He is typically on a reasonable salary (highly 
 AG> paid if outside UK)
 AG> and will pay reasonable money for the book (Under $50 I hope), because if
 AG> there is even ONE section that resolves an issue clearly, it will save the
 AG> price of the book. (How many times have you stepped thro code for 1/2 hr, 
 AG> only to find the sytem flakes BEFORE it reaches the 
 AG> bug, or AFTER but while
 AG> you are invensigating the environment?)

OS/2 provides the kernel debugger, an unparalleled tool for working on
device drivers and other Ring 0 code.  The problem is that this tool
requires considerable experience to use and communicates with the user by
means of winks and nods more than straightforward information.

Shanley's new book, "Protected Mode Software Architecture," is
the only thing I have seen on the subject of operating system internals,
and it is independent of operating system.  It is a superb OS/2 book that
never mentions OS/2.

 AG> Of course I don't have the slightest idea whether OS/2 will turn out to be
 AG> another Betamax, and there will be only 5 device driver writers for OS/2
 AG> in the whole galaxy, or whether the Win97+WinNT incompatibility and
 AG> instability will be the end of B Gates.

Let's see where IBM's new Java push goes.  IBM is betting OS/2 on Java and
the network paradigm.  It might work.

 AG> I would still say there is a case to be made for an interim 'thoughts of
 AG> chairman Bilow' condensation of your Fidonet postings. If not on PDK/DDK
 AG> then you could do your own CD! I'm sure you have access to a CD writer,
 AG> and after you have figured out the size of the market, you could either
 AG> get someone to press them for you, or give up. EIther way, it would be
 AG> a good way of researching the market size for your book.  

Oh God.  I hope people are not that desperate.

 AG> Do you know how many DevCon subscriptions there are active? If this is
 AG> not excessivley confidential, it would be nice to know. (IE size of a
 AG> DevCon Mailshot).

There were about 10,000 Devcon subscriptions last I knew, about 2,000 with
DDK.  The truly amazing thing is that Mastrianni's "Writing OS/2
Device Drivers in C," a book with significant deficiencies, has sold
almost 15,000 copies and is a runaway best seller by the standards of the
genre.

-- Mike

--- Maximus/2 3.00