In the past 20 years I've written many technical posts in various internet forums. This is a collection of those contributions.
Note that, as I find articles, I only intend to post contributions with current relevance.
Janaka 29/May/2008 - "High-water mark for LDD development books"
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.