Re: [Fwd: Re: ide.2.4.1-p3.01112001.patch]

[Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca>]

Bruce Byfield wrote:
> 
> Sandy Harris wrote:
> 
> > I thought Linus' comments on docs might provoke some discussion here.
> 
> A bit of clarification: Torvalds is talking about development specs,
> not documentation generally.

My reading (of the whole thread; it may not have been clear from that
single message) was that he was talking about relying on vendors' or
standards body specs as the basis for your development.
 
> And, if you strip away the hyberbole (which, BTW, is typical of
> Torvald's sense of humor),

Yes.
This is a mild example. Some of the comments he and others make on 
the kernel list about code they don't like are really pointed. 

> all he is really saying is that specs are
> working guidelines that should be revised as necessary.

I read him as saying you cannot trust vendor documentation, or the
standards a product is supposed to comply with, as a basis for driver
development. There will be hardware bugs, and drivers will have to
work even with buggy hardware.

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