[movitz-devel] Driver problems

[Joel Smith]

Hello, 

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Frode Vatvedt Fjeld wrote:

> I just checked in the beginnings of a new operator that might help
> you. It's muerte:%io-port-read-succession, and you should be able to
> use it like this:
> 
>   (%io-port-read-succession port object 2 0 1 :32-bit)
>

That's great! I think it's just what I need. I assume you are going to add 
an operator for writing to ports as well?

I am a little worried about the lack of a defined API for the device 
code. I worry that when people start writing drivers for Muerte then 
they will all start doing their own thing in terms of the API. I realize 
that you wish to have only a "very thin abstraction over the hardware" 
and not a proper driver, which I tend to agree with, but don't we still 
need some sort of low level API for the various classes of devices. 
If/when in the future someone comes to write proper drivers for a LispOS 
based on Movitz they are going to have a terrible time trying to support 
all the Muerte device code which shares no common interface. What do 
people think about this?

Happy Hacking,

Joel.