Re: MAKEDEV patch

["Pat Gilliland" <pgillil@cyberus.ca>]

The non-programmer at the back of the class tentatively raises his hand...

<snip>
>> They are not partitions, they are multiple CD-ROM
>> drives. You can have
>> many CD-ROM drives, right?
>
>Sure. My mistake. But even so, who has 16 CD-ROM
>drives, or even 4?

<snip>

>> 
>> If joysticks are supported, I guess that we can
>> support multiple
>> joysticks.
>
>Again, sure. But why do we need js and djs? And how
>come it's 0 - 15 - 128 - 15, instead of 0 - 15 - 16 -
>15? Who has 128 joysticks, or even 16, or even 4?

<snip>

In both cases I think caution is needed before removing functionality. 
Support for 16+ cdroms may be useful for some sort of streaming audio or
video application - not a jukebox with a cd carousel but a device/app that
simultaneously streams data from several drives to several clients.

No one may use 128 joysticks but there may be a place for 128 devices that
use a "joystick" interface.  Back in DOS days there were many projects for
motor controllers, temperature sensors etc that ran through the joy port.  

Since ELKS is partly focussed on embedded applications, we need to be
cautious of an overly desktop centred point of view.  

All this may be moot if these numbers can be restored at a later date
through a simple re-patch.  

Pat G.
Patrick Gilliland
InkPot Productions
www.inkpotproductions.ca
(613) 722-1439
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