Subject: Re: floppy controller tape devices
To: None <port-i386@NetBSD.ORG, current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Gerald C. Simmons <simmons@darykon.cet.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 11/23/1997 15:46:27
Thanks for the re-focus. ;^)  (No more CRAP)

Actually, I've looked into the FreeBSD support of the floppy tape deives. It's
been in their a long time and is fairly integrated into fd.c.  As I said before,
I'm a hardware guy, and even trying to compare FreeBSD's fd.c and NetBSD's fd.c,
I got well in over my head. Device drivers for Un*x or any OS, are not like tweaking
inn or tin or even XFree86 and getting them to run.

Has anyone else looked at FreeBSD's support of these tape drives?


---------  Received message begins Here  ---------

> On Sun, Nov 23, 1997 at 02:02:36PM -0800, Gerald C. Simmons wrote:
> 
> > > As for floppy tape support, I too think it is crap, and will stick to
> > > my 4mm DAT changer.  However, I see the desire for others to use what
> > > they have on hand, too.
> > > 
> > > --Michael
> > > 
> > 
> > Here's the CRAP thing again! Don't you see how destructive to the NetBSD
> > project this kind of an attitude is?
> 
> I think you're overreacting here.. Michael is in fact saying: "No matter
> what I think of this particular kind of hardware, I see that it should
> be supported".
> 
> It's ok for people to have the opinion that a kind of hardware is 'crap',
> but it should not be used as a reason to not support it, that's clear.
> And he's not doing that.
> 
> I agree with your sentiments with regard to the fist reaction: saying
> "That piece of hardware sucks, so we should not support it" is very wrong.
> 
> To come back to the original point: it's not supported currently. Whether
> it will be in the future depends on if someone will have the 1) time,
> 2) hardware, and 3) knowledge to write (or port) support for it. To
> fulfill all 3 of those conditions is unfortunately a problem a lot
> of the time.. Since Michael says he has 3), and hopefully has 1),
> maybe someone could provide him with 2)?
> 
> - Frank
>