Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 14 Jul 1997 16:58:18 -0600 (CST) | From | Adam Mckee <> | Subject | Documentation of kernel sources |
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Hello all.
I am a kernel-hacker wanna-be myself. I have been trying to understand the basics of how control of the machine is transferred between the kernel and processes. To this end, I am working on a patch to the scheduler. There's a lot to be said for "learn-by-doing"... identify a simple project and just start hacking... a lot of gaps in your knowledge will be revealed in the (painful) debugging process. However, the ideal thing in terms of attracting new talent to the effort would be a very well-written reference to the core kernel code, device driver interfaces, etc. Some walk-thrus of drivers for different types of devices (block,char,scsi,etc.) would be nice also.
I think there is a commercial opportunity here... if O'Reilly actually released a good book that documents the core kernel code, I'd buy it in a second and I'm sure a lot of others would also. Documentation like this could bring a lot of new talent to the effort. I.e. maybe some people could actually stop whining and start coding!
-- Adam
On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
> > > On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > > On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Steven N. Hirsch wrote: > > > > > I almost guarantee that 10% more effort put into documentation and > > > commenting would reap great rewards in terms of contributed input from the > > > community at large. Then, you CAN go off and design and implement the > > > "latest and greatest" - AFTER having paved the way for others to maintain > > > and fine-tune the previous "latest and greatest". > > > > > IMHO, it takes more effort to document the code than to write it. That's my > > experience with kernel hacking (and I touched a lot of the Linux/m68k kernel > > code). So your 10% rule is not correct (and as a professional developer, > > shouldn't you know that documentation is the hardest part? :-) > > Oh absolutely true. I never meant to imply that 10% more time would > result in complete documentation <g>. Just trying to get a point > across.. > > > And the `real' kernel hackers have so much to do, and so many new ideas, that > > they'd rather do what they like most: i.e. turning ideas into new code... > > And they do that well. I would be glad to document kernel source - > problem is that I don't know what the h*ll is going on in most places! > > In another message, Alan Cox implies that something might be coming down > the pike from O'Reilly. I bought a copy of Linux Kernel Internals, and it > was of some value (if a bit dated). Perhaps it's time for a re-read of > that and "Modern Unix Internals". > > Just so hard to get that first foot in the door! > > Steve > > >
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