On Friday 05 November 2004 13:06, Ted Harding wrote:
On 05-Nov-04 Ti Kan wrote:
Things used to be different (in increasingly long time ago ... ).
When I got my first "personal computer" -- a Sharp MZ80B (Z-80 based 64K CP/M machine), *in the box* was a complete technical manual with the machine code for the operating system and the specs for the interrupts and data registers for the attached devices (screen RAM and tape drive in the first istance). When I bought serial board and floppy drive add-ons, these too came with the same full specs. Likewise the independently manufactured Anderson-Jacobson 300-baud modem I got later.
So you could program anything with your own bare hands (and I did: anyone interested in a serial modem comms program, "terminal emulator", written in FORTRAN??? [guess why]).
But things have changed. I really wonder what manufacturers think they gain by concealing the interface specs for their devices. Maybe it's just too much trouble and expense for the no doubt small fraction of the market that really wants to know. However, there's no doubt that it can make the going very sticky for Linux.
It's all about the bucks. Doesn't matter which kind. They don't want everyone to have their secrets. Once they do, then they automatically assume that someone will copy their idea and they will lose money. Mike -- Powered by SuSE 9.2 Kernel 2.6.8 KDE 3.3.0 Kmail 1.7.1 For Mondo/Mindi backup support go to http://www.mikenjane.net/~mike 4:32pm up 1 day 22:40, 5 users, load average: 2.89, 2.72, 2.68