Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!utkcs2!bass
From: bass@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Vance Bass)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: device drivers
Summary: you can indeed write drivers in high-level languages
Message-ID: <745@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 89 03:11:25 GMT
References: <6858@fluke.COM> <509@rpi.edu> <20044@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: bass@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Vance Bass)
Organization: CS Dept - U of TN, Knoxville
Lines: 26

In article <20044@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes:
>I don't think you can write DOS Installable device drivers
>(those you install with DEVICE= ...  line in CONFIG.SYS) using
>Turbo C or Turbo Pascal or MSC.  I wouln't say never, but
>it sounds awfully difficult.

It's not too bad, actually.  The following is all from memory, but it's
fundamentally correct and should be recreatable from the usual
information (i.e., the DOS Tech Ref).

Several years ago I got driver source and a small executable from a guy
who had simply figured out how to convert the DOS executable header to
the DOS device driver header.  The device driver header is well-documented,
and I believe the executable header can be found in the Tech Ref, too.
The only trick, as I remember it, was that you had to put the strategy
routine first to simplify getting its address for the driver header.

The memory really starts losing multiple bits here, so I'll leave it at
that and let younger, more agile minds flesh out the details.  SMOP,
right?

-- 

Vance Bass			The opinions expressed here are strictly
IBM M&SG			my own, and do not necessarily
Knoxville, TN			represent IBM's views on the subject.