[comp.os.minix] Device drivers and Computer Systems

rheffel@cs2.wsu.edu (04/07/89)

I am in the process of patching kernel/floppy.c and dos[dir, read, write].c
so that they can support 720K and 1.44M drives.  The patch kit can be 
found at bugs.nosc.mil.  The point of this diatribe is that I whole-heartedly
agree with the author of that patch kit that devices should not be
configured to computer systems but to the hardware a system has.

For example, I run MINIX 1.3 on a 12 MHz Zero Wait State 286 (DTK 
motherboard) that I put together myself.  It has a 360K Toshiba floppy
drive and a 1.44M Toshiba 3 and 1/2 inch microfloppy drive.  This
configuration does not match the PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, or PS/2 standard
setup.  It is really a mix of PC and PS/2 type storage mediums.  Having
flags that reflect drive types (eg, D360K, D1_2M, D720K, D1_44M) is
preferable to (pc, pc_at, ps2).

Enough said!

rich heffel (rheffel@cs2.wsu.edu)