linux-kernel - Re: API documentation (was [PATCH] Replace completions with semaphores)

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Date:	Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:38:32 +0200
From:	"Bart Van Assche" <bart.vanassche@...il.com>
To:	"Peter Zijlstra" <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	"Jonathan Corbet" <corbet@....net>,
	"Matthew Wilcox" <matthew@....cx>,
	"Roland Dreier" <rdreier@...co.com>,
	"Ingo Oeser" <ioe-lkml@...eria.de>,
	"Daniel Walker" <dwalker@...sta.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	"Linus Torvalds" <torvalds@...l.org>, "Ingo Molnar" <mingo@...e.hu>
Subject: Re: API documentation (was [PATCH] Replace completions with semaphores)

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 7:33 PM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org> wrote:
>  Books should only be used to obtain the general picture, any details
>  will be instantly-obsolete, esp at the pace Linux changes.
>
>  Most of the concepts from LDD3 are still valid, many of the details are
>  dead wrong.
>
>  Can't we make LDD4 a high level book, explcitly mentioning how people
>  should go about obtaining details? Like go ask on #kernelnewbies and the
>  sorts.
>
>  The thing I always tell #kernelnewbies people is to look at a related
>  driver (of course that kite doesn't always fly). Another good way to
>  learn stuff is to just read the implementation.
>
>  A 'trick' that is often useful is to look in git to see how something
>  was changed, provided you knew how to do it some time in the past.

What I remember from the first time I wrote a network driver is that
reading the chapter in LDD3 about network drivers was the fastest way
to get started. Learning how to write a network driver by reverse
engineering existing drivers would have required much more time. My
opinion is that mentioning all relevant details in a book makes sense.

Bart.
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