thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/25/91)
UNIXPC Device Driver Development Guide update ... OK, after the failure of three (3) copy centers to produce copies to MY satisfaction, I found a 24-hour place near my home that used the most incredible copier I've ever seen (believe it was an Xerox 5090, with color touch-screen command console, etc etc) that made copies indistinguishable from my "original". Remember I commented last month that my "original" was already a copy of a copy that I received directly from AT&T ... it's readable, but it's NOT like it came directly off a Linotronics 2000 DPI photo-typesetter. With all that said, the costs are lower than my original estimate. What with adding the tax (that I had to pay), the copy cost per set came to $2.59; let's call it $2.60. So the direct "hard" costs are: $ 2.60 per set copy cost 1.05 postage for 4 1/2 oz (copy plus envelope) for USA 1st class +_____ $ 3.65 to that must be added the envelope cost (I have NO idea what this is since I bought 500 10x13 flat envelopes over a year ago and can't find the invoice), the cost of the mailing labels, and mileage to/from the copy centers and the post office. Given that approx. 30 people expressed interest in the Guide, I had 35 copies made (more can be done from this point on with NO hassle :-). As with the group buy of the WD2010 last year, this is NOT a for-profit deal and everything is AT COST. If you want to buy one and make copies for local distribution, that's fine with me (and reduces the time I have to spend! :-) As far as I know, the document is no longer in print. The copy I have was sent by AT&T in New Jersey for our User Group library and may be one of the few still in existence. If you're still interested, please send a check payable in US Funds or a Postal Money Order or whatever else won't cause me any hassle at my bank in the amount of $4.50 payable to "Thad Floryan" to: Thad Floryan 1522 Wistaria Lane Los Altos, CA 94024-7265 Note my ZIP code changed last year due to Post Office re-organization (for those of you who participated in the WD2010 group buy). To expedite matters here (I get a LOT of mail), please write ``UNIXPC'' somewhere on the envelope (lower left corner is good). Please include a note stating you're buying a "Device Driver Guide" and PLEASE clearly print or type the complete address to which you want the Guide sent. After doing the WD2010 group buy I discovered it's actually easier for me to print all the mailing labels in one shot here than it was to handle a mixture of my mailing labels and mailing labels sent along with the order. I'll get these out ASAP upon receipt of your order. I've heard the US Postal rates are going up Real Soon Now, so if anyone knows any more about this please let me know ... may have to add 25 cents or so to the total cost. If the order is to be sent outside the USA, please include whatever additional postage costs you KNOW are required given the 4.5oz weight for Air Mail. Several people have offered to type in the Guide. Considering that I believe this to be an arduous task, maybe someone can volunteer to coordinate the effort with each person doing, say, 5 pages and emailing them for inclusion into a single file which can then be uploaded to osu-cis. Seems to me it'd be better for a "flat file" (no formatting commands) which could then be formatted for nroff/troff/TeX/whatever by the coordinator, with all "typees" getting credit on a cover page! Let's start the discussion here in this newsgroup. I wish I had the time to coordinate this, but I don't. Thad Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
dave@dms3b1.uucp (Dave Hanna) (01/26/91)
In article <38457@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes:
<UNIXPC Device Driver Development Guide update ...
<Several people have offered to type in the Guide. Considering that I believe
<this to be an arduous task, maybe someone can volunteer to coordinate the
<effort with each person doing, say, 5 pages and emailing them for inclusion
<into a single file which can then be uploaded to osu-cis.
Does anyone have an OCR scanner, so we could just scan the printed
guide (and then proof-read it for scan errors) instead of typing it
all in? Or is the copy too low quality to make that a viable option?
<Thad
--
Dave Hanna, Infotouch Systems, Inc. | "Do or do not -- There is no try"
P.O. Box 584, Bedford, TX 76095 | - Yoda
(214) 358-4534 (817) 540-1524 |
UUCP: ...!letni!dms3b1!dave |thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/26/91)
Regarding the UNIXPC Device Driver Development Guide, feel free to order one even if you weren't among the approx. 30 who originally stated they wanted a copy; I had 35 printed up since that's what the initial response suggested would be required. Now that I've found a good copy center, making extra copies of the Guide is no problem (contrasted with WD2010 chips which don't work so well after going through an Xerox machine (or the US Mail) :-) My only concern at this point is that a co-worker informed me at work today the postal rates will be going up during the first week of February. The 35 copies I had printed Thursday night are already in envelopes awaiting only a mailing label and postage; in other words, there will be less than one day turnaround (except on Sunday). Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/27/91)
After several inquiries, I just want to be sure there's NO misunderstanding as to what I'm presently offering. The document is (originally) from AT&T Information Systems and entitled: UNIXPC Version 3.0 Device Driver Development Guide Issue 0 It's 44 pages (22 double-sided) long, and contains software specifications and some skeleton examples for use by people already familiar with the concepts of device drivers along with all the interface (to the kernel) calls. To the best of my knowledge, this is the ONLY information ever published on this subject for the 3B1/UNIXPC, and it was never updated from Issue 0. One person asked about the "UNIX PC Device Driver Development Kit". I have NEVER seen this "kit" and indications "suggest" it may never have been produced though there are related materials in the att7300/STORE/IHVDIAG+IN.Z and other files at osu-cis It's my understanding that the few companies who actually did produce the commercially-available existing device drivers did so under non-disclosure agreements with access to the actual source code (of the kernel, etc.). But note that several people have written device drivers directly from the information in the Guide (e.g. RAM-disks, ptys, etc.) I would strongly urge you to also have a copy of Bach's "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" (Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-201799-2) for effective use of this Guide. The Bach book details all the algorithms of SVR2 such as would be found in the kernel of the 3B1/UNIXPC (but not including whatever Convergent Tech and AT&T extensions were added to support the unique features of the 3B1/UNIXPC). In closing, the Guide is NOT a tutorial but a technical document with pertinent specifications. If your use of the 3B1/UNIXPC is solely playing mahjongg, your money would probably be better spent buying floppy disks. :-) Thad Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/27/91)
dave@dms3b1.uucp (Dave Hanna) in <1991Jan26.042946.17465@dms3b1.uucp> writes:
Regarding the UNIXPC Device Driver Development Guide and my suggestion that
a team type it into the computer:
Does anyone have an OCR scanner, so we could just scan the printed
guide (and then proof-read it for scan errors) instead of typing it
all in? Or is the copy too low quality to make that a viable option?
The copy quality is not good enough for OCR scanning using ANY scanner I've
seen to date, and I've seen some Big Buck scanners.
To illustrate what I mean, Apple uses one of my software products (as written
up in Computerworld last year) to process the 650+ incoming daily resume's as
part of their Applicant Tracking System. Even with the high quality of type
style/font used for resume's, the "hit rate" (for the exotic scanner Apple
uses) is only around 95% last time I heard (December 1990) (and, no, I didn't
write the scanner stuff, just the 4GL in which Apple wrote their application).
The Guide's print quality is readable by humans, but I do not believe there's
any scanner capable of reliably processing it today; the time required to make
corrections would (probably) be greater than the time required to type in the
document assisted by human optical scanning! :-)
What's annoying (to me) is that the ORIGINAL document must have been in a file
for troff or TeX, but no-one I've called claims any knowledge of that.
Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]alex@umbc4.umbc.edu (Alex S. Crain) (01/28/91)
In article <38501@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: > One person asked about the "UNIX PC Device Driver Development Kit". I > have NEVER seen this "kit" and indications "suggest" it may never have > been produced though there are related materials in the > att7300/STORE/IHVDIAG+IN.Z and other files at osu-cis About the IHVDIAG stuff. For those in the dark about this, this is the sources to diagnostincs disk, and is basically a *very* stripped unix kernal. No process table, paging, etc but there are drivers for the disk, console, tty port, etc, and these drivers all use the same structures as the unix kernel (gdsw, etc). The code is pretty evil, and made even worse by the stub functions for all the tests (the source is to the drivers, not the test code). None the less, its a good start for people who want to hack on the hardware, or write standalone applications. You could, for example, use it to port minix, bsd, a standalone X server (the unix-pc as an Xterm), a *fast* computer game, etc. I myself used it as the framework for a scheme based operating system that runs at the hardware level. I've got a basic scheme kernel with console I/O and a primitive filesystem interface for the floppy. It needs more work (an editor, extend-syntax, graphics, etc) and should be available in about 6 months. ################################# :alex. #Disclaimer: Anyone who agrees # Systems Programmer #with me deserves what they get.# University of Maryland Baltimore County ################################# alex@umbc3.umbc.edu
kak@hico2.UUCP (Kris A. Kugel) (01/28/91)
In article <38507@cup.portal.com>, thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: > dave@dms3b1.uucp (Dave Hanna) in <1991Jan26.042946.17465@dms3b1.uucp> writes: > > Regarding the UNIXPC Device Driver Development Guide and my suggestion that > a team type it into the computer: > The Guide's print quality is readable by humans, but I do not believe there's > any scanner capable of reliably processing it today; the time required to make > corrections would (probably) be greater than the time required to type in the > document assisted by human optical scanning! :-) > > What's annoying (to me) is that the ORIGINAL document must have been in a file > for troff or TeX, but no-one I've called claims any knowledge of that. > > Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ] I'm willing to type it in, or, as an alternate, re-add the nroff constructs for the document. I've recently done this for a major document on the 3b1 posted to this group. I'm also willing to co-ordinate a combination of the pieces, and that will be completed quicker. Kris A. Kugel ( 908 ) 842-2707 uunet!tsdiag.ccur.com!hico2!kak {daver,ditka,zorch}!hico2!kak internet: kak@hico2.westmark.com