On 30 Jan 2002, Jose Fonseca wrote: >Date: 30 Jan 2002 17:24:49 +0000 >From: Jose Fonseca <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Content-Type: text/plain >List-Id: <dri-devel.lists.sourceforge.net> >Subject: XFree86 NDA documentation > >I've decided to add some pertinent comments from Mike Harris regarding >the availability of documentation under NDA to the DRI Devel FAQ ( >http://mefriss1.swan.ac.uk/~jfonseca/dri/faq/html/hardware.html#ATI-SPECS ) > >In the comments Mike makes strong reference to join as XFree86 developer >as a mean to obtain NDA documentation that is shared to all XFree86 >developers, but it was mentioned in the last IRC meeting that this is no >longer true.
Thats right. XFree86.org has documentation for some pieces of video hardware that was obtained under NDA, and they are not able to distribute that documentation to other people freely or else that pretty much negates the whole point of an NDA. Just for clarification, NDA == Non Disclosure Agreement. This means, when you agree to an NDA, you are agreeing to not disclose the information you are receiving, to parties other than whom are listed in the agreement you are signing or agreeing to. As such, in order to obtain access to this NDA information, XFree86.org requires that you become a member of XFree86.org first, and agree to the XFree86.org NDA. Once you've agreed to the NDA, and have been accepted as a developer, then you can access the documentation that XFree86.org has under NDA. In order to be accepted into the project however, you need to follow the steps at: http://www.xfree.org/developer.html and submit a bugfix or otherwise contribute to the XFree86 codebase. To join The XFree86 Project as a non-voting member you need to first submit a documented fix to our code-base at [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Once this fix is accepted and committed to our repository, with or without minor corrections, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] stating the reason you wish to become a member and what area of XFree86 you want to contribute. If instead you are looking for a meeting place or discussion group, give our open groups a look; they may be more to your suiting. All XFree86 groups, whether open or member-controlled, are unmoderated. >The fact is that the XFree86 developer page >(http://www.xfree.org/developer.html) makes no mention to this and I >would like to know if this still holds true or not. Yes, it is still true. Unless every vendor that has given XFree86.org documentation under NDA somehow decides the NDA is no longer necessary, this process is not likely to change. Please note, that the above process does NOT get you access to the documentation of all of the ATI hardware. In order to get ATI hardware documentation, you must become an ATI developer relations member. If you're not an XFree86 member however, then you wont likely be accepted into ATI developer relations unless you meet some other criterion. So, in summary: 1) Fix some bugs in XFree86, or add some new features to it 2) Submit your fixes/patches to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3) Apply to XFree86.org to become a member as per the information on the Xfree86.org website. 4) If accepted, which will likely be the case since very few people are ever refused, then you will be offered an NDA agreement. You must agree to this agreement in order to proceed further. 5) Once you've agreed to the NDA, then you will be given various other information details including access to the private website/ftpsite/mailinglists and whatnot. The ftpsite contains various datasheets for some hardware which is under NDA. You can now access this information, but must NOT redistribute it to anyone. 6) At some point after this, you can apply to ATI developer relations, and let them know you are a registered XFree86 developer. At that point, ATI will decide wether or not to offer you access to the documentation. From what I have seen, very few people if any are refused access to the documentation who have shown initiative to follow the above steps, and to actively contribute to XFree86. Also note that what I have written above is not "the law". It comes with no guarantees whatsoever. It is just a general guideline to follow to get from point A to point B. People who go out of their way to contribute to XFree86 by working on bugfixes in *any* part of the code/documentation, etc. by showing their own initiative and "just doing it", are much more likely to be accepted as a developer than those who just whine and say "I cant get docs so I cant fix the code". Find something that you can fix _now_ with the skills you _have_ and the information you _have_, and contribute it back to XFree86. In particular, if you're interested in a particular vendor's hardware, read the driver source code, and try to understand it. Read the DESIGN document in the XFree86 source code. Many bugs can be found and fixed without having the hardware documentation, and many of those even without having the actual hardware. Out of all of the people interested in working on XFree86 or DRI, I've noticed that people generally fall into two categories: 1) People who show initiative and do stuff, working with what hardware, tools and documentation that _are_ available to them, and asking questions about problems they encounter while trying to fix a given bug or work on a piece of driver code. 2) People who have done nothing at all, but are interested in doing so, but whom probably have not even looked at the source code, or even tried to fix any bugs, assuming that they must have the documentation first or it is not possible to contribute to anything. Many of whom complain about lack of documentation, having to agree to NDA's and whatnot. While #2 people often have legitimate complaints, many of the things I have seen people complain about are static items, at least for the time being. It is generally IMHO the #1 people who show the most initiative, and hack away on their own, that end up producing results, and also end up meeting the general unofficial uidelines I've mentioned above. Summary of entire email: JUST DO IT -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike A. Harris Shipping/mailing address: OS Systems Engineer 190 Pittsburgh Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, XFree86 maintainer Ontario, Canada, P6C 5B3 Red Hat Inc. Phone: (705)949-2136 http://www.redhat.com ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris Red Hat XFree86 mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] General open IRC discussion: #xfree86 on irc.openprojects.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
