Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:38:32 +0200 | From | "Bart Van Assche" <> | Subject | Re: API documentation (was [PATCH] Replace completions with semaphores) |
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On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 7:33 PM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> wrote: > Books should only be used to obtain the general picture, any details > will be instantly-obsolete, esp at the pace Linux changes. > > Most of the concepts from LDD3 are still valid, many of the details are > dead wrong. > > Can't we make LDD4 a high level book, explcitly mentioning how people > should go about obtaining details? Like go ask on #kernelnewbies and the > sorts. > > The thing I always tell #kernelnewbies people is to look at a related > driver (of course that kite doesn't always fly). Another good way to > learn stuff is to just read the implementation. > > A 'trick' that is often useful is to look in git to see how something > was changed, provided you knew how to do it some time in the past.
What I remember from the first time I wrote a network driver is that reading the chapter in LDD3 about network drivers was the fastest way to get started. Learning how to write a network driver by reverse engineering existing drivers would have required much more time. My opinion is that mentioning all relevant details in a book makes sense.
Bart.
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