“Moreira, Alberto” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>
> What we do have to get away from, IMHO, is the straightjacket imposed by
the
> current party-line way of writing drivers. And let me put it this way, if
> you cringe at the relatively mild liberties graphics people take with the
> system, I wonder what your reaction would be to what we do within SoftIce
or
> BoundsChecker, or even TrueTime ? Yet we don’t crash systems any more than
> anybody else.
>
There’s been lots of good feedback already, but I just couldn’t keep silent:
1) I don’t really understand your argument, Alberto. Cuz SoftICE and
BoundsChecker do unspeakable things in the kernel, it’s OK for graphics
drivers to do so, too?? And, while ICE and BoundsCheker might be decent
diagnostic tools – and enagage in their hacks in support of their
short-term diagnostic mission – I, for one, am nauseated by some of the
hacks these products engage in. (sorry, but you asked for that one!)
2) You DO realize that graphics drivers are the #1 cause of Windows NT/2K/XP
system failures, right? So, I’m thinkin’… QED. Hacking the O/S is bad
for stability.
While there are undoubtedly people who have the requisite skill, experience,
and deep understanding of NT kernel architecture to be able to do things
that are counter to recommended practice, I’m sorry to say that (in my
experience, at least) those people are few and far between. AND, the
“clever” things that even THOSE knowlegeable few do OFTEN come back to haunt
them as unanticipated side-effects emerge and the o/s evolves around them.
No, this ain’t Windows 3.1 anymore where we could “hook INT 21 and party…
yeeee haaa!”.
Performance second. STABILITY FIRST.
If people want unltra hot graphics, they can buy an xbox or something –
Knock knock?!? NT is a general purpose operating system! (eh, GADS! There I
go agreeing with Roddy AGAIN),
Peter
OSR
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