FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: hardware specs -- who's naughty and who's nice?

["Michael Phipps" <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>Michael Phipps wrote:
>>[snip] Writing device drivers, though, is never trivial.
>>Especially without specs. :-/
>>[snip]
>
>I've never done any driver development. What companies
>actually provide these specifications that are needed to produce
>OBOS drivers?

There are two sides to the coin. How to make an OBOS/BeOS/NewOS driver and how 
to talk to hardware device foo.
Obviously, we can teach/document how to make a driver from our side. 
How to talk to the device? That needs to come from 
1) the maker of the device (best case)
2) reverse engineered from an open-source driver
3) from the maker of the "main" chip - for example, the bt848 video sampling 
cards
4) reverse engineered from other sources

>It would be nice to put a list of hardware manufacturers
>on the OBOS site somewhere; something like:
>
>    "The following list of companies openly provide the necessary
>    specs for the following pieces of hardware -- support them! :)"

That will come when we have that more nailed down.

>or at least provide some links to sites that publish this sort
>of information. Anyone know of any?

Much of it depends. Anything in particular I can help with?