On 2011-08-10 22:33, Doug Franklin wrote:
The analogy it reminds me of is that Android is trying to do for phone software what the IBM PC did for commodity hardware: define the extent and form of the commodity. The PC did it by publishing the BIOS source code and hardware/software interface specs, and /de facto/ establishing a public programming interface for the software that would ride atop the hardware and BIOS.
In passing, I should mention that was /not/ IBM's intention, based on what I've learned about it. To this day, I've never heard from anyone, inside or out, a reasonable justification for some of the information they freely published, other than simply a (catastrophic) strategic miscalculation.
An IBM PC Technical Reference Manual in 1984 or so (or PC XT, PCjr, PC AT manuals, as they came out) cost around $250, if my memory serves me. It was freely available to any buyer with the cash if they called IBM. Those manuals contained:
* all of the hardware signalling interfaces, electric, electronic, and timing
* all of the hardware physical characteristics, down to the drill centers, diameters, and threading for the mounting screws
* the complete assembly language source code for the BIOS in the machine (and thus all of the hardware interfacing information necessary for a cloner)
* full interface specs for all of the ancillary hardware in the machine (serial ports, parallel ports, ISA bus add-on cards, etc.) so that was easily duplicated, too.
It's like they designed the offering to be cloned. -- Thanks, DougF (KG4LMZ) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
