Are these books outdated?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016, François wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 02:01:55PM +0300, Aleksander Alekseev wrote:
>
> Hello Aleksander,
>
> I only know LDD 3:
> > * Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (2005)
>
> Since this book is freely available in PDF, I would advise you to read it.
> It is out-dated (in sense you won't compile snippets as is) but it is well
> written, and pleasant to read.
>
> The version 4 was scheduled for dec 2015 iirc, but is now annonced
> for nov 2017 on O'Reilly's website.

  i have it on reasonably good authority that it's iffy whether there
will ever be an LDD4, only because of the massive amount of work that
would be involved.

  i think it would be more productive to concentrate on finding and/or
writing much smaller snippets that focus on how to properly write a
*single* type of driver.

  i'm not convinced of the value of trying to invest the time in
writing a book that tries to cover *all* drivers anymore, given the
variety. i think it would be far more useful to find people who,
having expertise in one specific type of driver, would be willing to
write a short tutorial for *just* that type of driver and posting it
online. then, slowly but surely, one could build up a useful set of
online tutorials.

  so you're interested in the linux kernel and have no idea where to
start? there's your answer. pick a driver/subsystem you're
*interested* in, and start figuring out how it works. and while
you're doing that, write it up. or if there's already a writeup for
that under the Documentation/ directory, make sure it's up to date and
if it isn't, fix it.

  there's no point sitting around waiting for LDD4, hoping others are
going to do your work for you. get to work, start reading and start
writing.

rday

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

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