Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: What SHOULD go in the kernel
Keywords: device drivers
Message-ID: <2554@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 21 Oct 89 20:51:59 GMT
References: <2186@ektools.UUCP> <20230@mimsy.umd.edu> <14163@well.UUCP> <3228@rti.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Distribution: na
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 20


 >>        One could argue that device drivers don't belong in the kernel
 >> at all.
 >
 >As device drivers continue to bloat in number and size,
 >and as hardware becomes more sophisticated,
 >this argument gains strength.

Yes, but...

 >The NeXT Mach 1.0 operating system supports loadable device drivers.
 >The MIDI interface, and other things like a SLIP (RS-232 TCP/IP) driver,
 >are done that way.  The driver is dynamically linked to the kernel,
 >at which point it functions like an ordinary driver.

...down to being a part of the kernel.

Sorry, just making drivers loadable into and, possibly, unloadable from
the kernel doesn't keep them from being in the kernel - it just makes it
easier to control which ones you are in your particular kernel.