> 
> The underlying problem is that we have hardware devices that can act
> as both network interfaces and character mode interfaces (besides the
> zs, most ISDN cards can do both sync PPP (over HDLC), as well as async
> character-at-a-time mode (using V.120 or V.110)). I'm not entirely
> comfortable with the approach of attaching 2 or more different device
> drivers (one network, one character) to the same physical device.

That applies to disk drivers, it is tempting to extend the paradigm to 
other devices too.  I'm no Unix driver expert, but it seems to me that
the similarity isn't merely superficial.

My two cents.
-- 
Lucio de Re (lucio@proxima.alt.za)
Disclaimer: I'm working at getting my opinions to agree with me.