Introduction:
I picked this book up as an experience embedded software engineer who wanted to explore and learn about Linux device drivers. With a background in real-time embedded software development(with some RTOS experience) and years of Linux/nix user/developer experience this book nicely matched my learning path.
Layout of the book:
The chapters are layed out in a logical and incremental fashion where introductory chapters stick to the big picture stuff while later on chapters delve deep in to the internals.
Contents and Examples:
Book takes the approach of explaining the subjects in concise manner with examples and interesting incite. However the code examples in many cases are incomplete, and duly so. I say this because the lot of examples, in their entirety, are provided on their web/ftp site.
Currentness and compatibility:
The book uses x86 as its platform and for its examples. I found some minor differences in API interfaces on other platforms(i.e.:PPC). Also some of the latest kernels have altered some of the APIs slightly.
For who:
In my opinion this book is for software engineers/developers who has experience in C and Makefiles. Any embedded development experience will help understand why things are done the way they are and the deeper issues of concurrency and timing.
Conclusion:
This book is the benchmark for Linux device driver books. It is well set out and a easy read. To get the maximum out of the book you will need to play around with the examples/ideas that are covered in this book.
I picked this book up as an experience embedded software engineer who wanted to explore and learn about Linux device drivers. With a background in real-time embedded software development(with some RTOS experience) and years of Linux/nix user/developer experience this book nicely matched my learning path.
Layout of the book:
The chapters are layed out in a logical and incremental fashion where introductory chapters stick to the big picture stuff while later on chapters delve deep in to the internals.
Contents and Examples:
Book takes the approach of explaining the subjects in concise manner with examples and interesting incite. However the code examples in many cases are incomplete, and duly so. I say this because the lot of examples, in their entirety, are provided on their web/ftp site.
Currentness and compatibility:
The book uses x86 as its platform and for its examples. I found some minor differences in API interfaces on other platforms(i.e.:PPC). Also some of the latest kernels have altered some of the APIs slightly.
For who:
In my opinion this book is for software engineers/developers who has experience in C and Makefiles. Any embedded development experience will help understand why things are done the way they are and the deeper issues of concurrency and timing.
Conclusion:
This book is the benchmark for Linux device driver books. It is well set out and a easy read. To get the maximum out of the book you will need to play around with the examples/ideas that are covered in this book.
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