-=> On 08 Jun 95  16:38:48 Mike Bilow said to John Poltorak <=-

 MB> The opinions I formed in due course are these:

 MB> 1.  Mastrianni's book is totally useless.  Much of it is an
 MB> abbreviated regurgitation of the official IBM docs, but the parts
 MB> chosen to be regurgitated have no rhyme or reason.  For example, the
 MB> virtual device helper API is explored in excruciating detail, but
 MB> nowhere does Mastrianni ever explain true fundamentals such as the
 MB> difference between a "virtual" and a "linear" address.
More explanation of thunks would help too.

 MB> 2.  The official IBM docs are remarkably good.  They are in reference
 MB> form, but they have very few inaccuracies and are quite reliable.
You have to know IBMSpeak though.

 MB> 3.  There are several books which device driver writers would find
 MB> useful, and these are not obvious.  (I should probably sit down and
 MB> compile a list.)

We want it now!!!

 MB> 4.  A lot of Mastrianni's popularity is pure economics.  When the IBM
 MB> DDK first came out (as the DDSK), it cost about US$300 per year.  IBM
 MB> justified this, believe it or not, by saying that they only expected
 MB> to sell about 1000 subscriptions per year, and they had to recover
 MB> costs somehow.  When reason finally prevailed and the DDK became
 MB> available as a US$75 add-on to a DevCon subscription, Mastrianni's
 MB> book ceased to be such a relative bargain.  People buying Mastrianni's
 MB> book as a cheaper alternative to the IBM DDK are making a huge
 MB> mistake.
I was given a free copy of the DDK, but I still bought the book, cos
I knew I didn't know enough. After reading the book, I was not much wiser
but definitely poorer.

 MB> 5.  If someone ever does write a device driver book, they need to
 MB> concentrate on an architectural overview of OS/2 internals, not on the
 MB> DevHelp API.  How does memory work?  When and how do you lock and
 MB> unlock memory?  What are you really looking at with the debugging
 MB> kernel?  What arbitrary conventions are used inside OS/2?  What
 MB> happens from the driver point of view whan an application calls
 MB> DosOpen(), DosRead(), DosDevIOCtl(), and so on?  This is the stuff
 MB> that is either lacking or buried in the IBM docs.

When I've finished writing the drivers I'm working on now, I'll write the
book. Please send me all suggestions as to what to cover.
(I'm doing: Video, SCSI, Printer, Keyboard and IEE488, all at once,
thats why I'm confused).

(Advances on Royalties also welcome)

Andrew


... Drop your carrier ... we have you surrounded!
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.12 OS/2 [NR]