Jan Knutar wrote:
On Monday 14 August 2006 08:23, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
If so, and the binary library provides access to all of the
features of the hardware, the result is the same -- it is just that the
open source driver is using a proprietary hardware abstraction layer.
You mean like using x86 processor emulation in X in order to
execute BIOS code to set the video mode?
That is an emulator; I mean a Hardware Abstraction Layer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_abstraction_layer
The end results might be the same, but it's not really a very
good solution..
Some software uses a HAL as the normal design. Using a HAL is a good
design. The difference here is that Intel or Epson supplies the HAL and
they don't supply the source code for it.
OTOH, Java could be considered to be a HAL. But, usually this refers to
code such as the code in the Linux Kernel that makes most of the Kernel
hardware independent.
HALs can be implemented at different levels. You could consider the
XF86 drivers to be HALs since they provide X11 with a video hardware
interface which is independent of the video card being used.
--
JRT
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