Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!src.honeywell.com!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!kksys!wd0gol!newave!john
From: john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Is programming still allowed?
Message-ID: <531@newave.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 90 19:58:51 GMT
References: <8319@star.cs.vu.nl>
Reply-To: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III)
Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN
Lines: 42

In article <8319@star.cs.vu.nl> sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren) writes:
> Is it reasonable to assume that if you buy computer hardware from a
> supplier that the information needed to program that hardware should be
> available to you?

NO, this is not a reasonable assumption.  Many systems are sold to perform
a specific task and the details of the implementation might be a strictly
held secret.  Another reason for keeping the implementation details secret
is to allow them to make changes or upgrades to the system without fear of
breaking existing applications.

This is one of those cases where common sense != business sense.

I recently worked on a contract for a computer systems organization that
supplied only the K&R C book for documentation along with a short note about
how most of the standard library was not implemented because the O/S did not
support file type I/O.  By hacking and poking around through the machine, I
did manage to discover a lot of neat things...but in the end, all I really
accomplished was to write a bunch of code that will never work past the next
operating system upgrade.  Needless to say, they kept most of their secrets,
but it was not a very productive way of doing things.

> Information like the address of the Ethernet chip on the board, details
> about memory management and the like, in short everything you need to
> know to write your own operating system.

I once proposed building a very specialized machine that needed quite a bit
of CPU horsepower.  To save on hardware development costs, I proposed using
the main CPU board from a SUN 3/50 (this was several years ago).  All we 
would have to do would be to add a specialized I/O circuit.  Upon approaching
Sun with our ideas, we were told by Sun that the internals of their machines
were off-limits to developers and they would not provide (sell) any info other
than what was documented in their UNIX manuals.  So I used a 386 clone 
motherboard when they became available.

-john-

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