A universal device driver library?

From: Jonathan Neve (jonathan_at_microtec.fr)
Date: 08/13/04 

Date: 13 Aug 2004 01:25:33 -0700

Hi all!

I've been thinking, wouldn't it be possible to create a standard
device driver library, that would allow device drivers to be written
in a portable way for all OSs? I realise of course, that there are
significant differences in the way each OS handles its devices.
Nevertheless, the role of a device driver is always basically the
same: provide low-level communication with a certain device, while
interacting in a simple way with the OS. Wouldn't it therefore be
possible to define a standard library that would encapsulate all the
functionnality necessary for writing device drivers?

If so, this would mean that device vendors could simply provide one
cross-platform device driver that would run anywhere, which would
simplify things for them, and it would also solve the age-old problem
that most or at least many devices only support M$ Windows. This would
at last allow people to choose their OS based on its own merits and
features, rather than being locked into Windows, because of some
unsupported device.

Any thoughts?
Jonathan Neve.

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