Very Computer

Okay, DOS drivers don't work because it is 16-bit. What about OS/2 and Windows NT drivers?
They're 32-bit. If we could pull this off.....

] Okay, DOS drivers don't work because it is 16-bit. What about OS/2
] and Windows NT drivers?  They're 32-bit. If we could pull this
] off.....

I agree.  I've raised this issue in the past, and received the reply
"everything you need is supported already."  When I asked about
scanner support, they pointed me to some driver for a hand scanner.
This seems much less than adequate to me.  On the other hand, I
haven't done anything about it yet.
--
David Fox          I have spoken.  All depart.          xoF divaD
NYU Media Research Lab                     baL hcraeseR aideM UYN
                   http://found.cs.nyu.edu/fox

They are 32bit but the GUI of them could not be compatible with Linux,
I think. As far as I know, most drivers under Window$ have some kind
of dialog box for the user to set things to the driver. These dialogs
are a part of the driver itself. Further think of drivers who need some
dll-files to work. The printer drivers, for example, who uses the
unidrv.dll to work probably. Therefor I think, only a very few of Window$
drivers are working, if they work.
--
Theofilu Andreas

               -------------------------------------------------
                           Enjoy the science of Linux!
                       Genie?e die Wissenschaft von Linux!
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Quote:>They are not Linux drivers. All three OS/2 have completely different
>foundations. Because of this each type of driver has completely different
>assumptions about what happening underneath it. And drivers don't have the
>luxury of hiding from the internals of the OS.

>Driver emulation is a completely different animal from application emulation
>because applications are usually distanced from the underlaying OS by design
>and drivers are not.

It would not be hard to make Linux support Netware drivers (at least for
mass storage devices--I've never looked at the spec for Netware network
drivers).  The services a Netware driver expects Netware to provide are
very generic, and would be easy to provide on Linux.

If anyone wants to pursue this, I can provide a sample application that
will take a one or more Netware NLMs, load them into the application's
data space, fix up all the NLM's references to Netware kernel functions
(and to functions in each other), and call their start routines.

--Tim Smith

] >Okay, DOS drivers don't work because it is 16-bit. What about OS/2 and Windows NT drivers?
] >They're 32-bit. If we could pull this off.....
]
] They are not Linux drivers. All three OS/2 have completely different
] foundations. Because of this each type of driver has completely different
] assumptions about what happening underneath it. And drivers don't have the
] luxury of hiding from the internals of the OS.
]
] Driver emulation is a completely different animal from application emulation
] because applications are usually distanced from the underlaying OS by design
] and drivers are not.

Its true that they're different, but we know what the hardware and the
operating system of the drivers are, so it might be possible to
automatically convert one to a working Linux driver.

] Better route: ask the manufacturer for a native driver. If not then
] ask for the interface specifications so that a driver can be
] written. If not then buy something else because you're probably then
] dealing with a stupid company that would turn down sales.

Not necessarily.  If the sales volume is tiny compared to Windows
sales (which it probably is for, say, a scanner company) the sales are
probably not worth making when it comes to the bottom line.  And
releasing information is not a no-brain decision, there are issues
like trade secrets, people complaining when changing supposedly
internal design details causes their programs to fail etc.  Their own
fault?  Sure, but its the company's problem.

] driver or will be a product when the driver exist. The more the
] better. Then submit a purchase order directly to thier puchaning
] department for that many units (1000 is a good round
] number). Require the public release of the specifications in the
] order. See what happens...

I'm in for a Polaroid SprintScan slide scanner and an HP-3C flatbed
scanner.  I'm dubious whether we'll gather a thousand for the HP,
and i'd be suprised to see 10 for the Polaroid.
--
David Fox          I have spoken.  All depart.          xoF divaD
NYU Media Research Lab                     baL hcraeseR aideM UYN
                   http://found.cs.nyu.edu/fox