billy@VENERA.ISI.EDU (Billy Brackenridge) (05/05/89)
On 14 April I sent this group a copy of the announcement of Microsoft's Network Device Driver Development Kit NDDDK. There are several updates. I am told that technically the NDDDK is free but you must purchase a support contract from DWB Associates. DWB Associates is the organization that will eventually verify that your network driver meets Microsoft specifications. If you want to order one of these kits call Tom Gemmell at Microsoft. Support contracts come in $500 and $2000 flavors. If you want to spend more, DWB Associates may even contract with you to write your network device driver and test it for you. I have a copy. I haven't been using it directly, but It makes interesting reading. The NDDDK includes an IBM Token Ring driver and an Ethernet driver. It is a complicated example of kernel level programming in OS/2 and should be of interest to anybody writing a protocol stack for OS/2. I was interested to find the code was entirely in assembly language. I had assumed OS/2 kernel was written in C as rumors abound about moving OS/2 to some RISC architecture. I have spoken to one person who passed on getting the NDDDK because of the offensive legal agreement required. Certainly if you manufacture some sort of network hardware and want to run OS/2 LAN manager software you need this kit. It may be useful and instructive to others writing other network code for OS/2, but It may or may not be worth signing the legal agreement necessary to procure the kit.