OSDev.org

Ok, once again I have coder's block. I love programming, I don't know what I would do if I didn't program. Right now I have the craving to code and I don't know what to write. Could you guys give me some ideas? Something that would be useful(especially for the UNIX community).

you could help code my rtl8139 driver =)
lol, no clue how that is useful to anyone else, but its an idea

I could give you something that would be usefull to me, but only me.

One thing I am considering though, is writing a bootloader+something which i don't know what to call.

All it has to do is to identify all the little thing that might be different (and make a difference from a programming point of view) from computer to computer. fx. cpu type/speed, memory, graphics, chipset, whatever. (I do know that some of these thing might be pretty challencing to identify). Then it ships that information of to a server which send something back.

I guess this could be usefull for some people in the unix comunity and I'm kinda at a standstill.

code a driver, and then make a wiki article explaining how it works. Then it will be useful for all of us

a driver for what?

the RTL8139D
=) jk

make a thermal monitor and put a wiki on it.

Well all jokes aside, a NIC driver would be very well recieved, but they can also be fiddly bastards to get working.

You could do a sound card (Sound Blaster 16 perhaps?) as there is plenty of documentation and programming guides around, but the wiki is woefully empty. If you wrote the driver, with a bit of help (maybe from me if you would like, though my driver is not yet working) we could get a half decent article going?

Sure(Sound Blaster)!

i found some nice resources for you:

http://www.qzx.com/pc-gpe/ (SB pro and SB 16)

http://ftp.lanet.lv/ftp/mirror/x2ftp/ms ... ng/mxinfo/ (a few docs in .zip files - at the bottom, prefixed with "sb")

http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~brodskye ... 16doc.html

http://www.inversereality.org/tutorials ... mple2.html

thanks!

How about Google Summer of Code '08? There is a lot to work on and you can earn up to $4,500.

I've heard a rumour that Google's SoC is going to have a second round for the southern summer... which I will certainly look into when the time comes.

If anybody has any ideas for non-kernelmode code they want written, I'm listening.

Yayyak wrote:If anybody has any ideas for non-kernelmode code they want written, I'm listening.

SoundBlaster user-mode device driver for a microkernel?

Why don't we write a specification for a common device driver interface, so we can share our drivers easily. I asked that one in a thread once, but only JamesM showed interest .

This may help, its a simple wav player with built in SB driver, i converted to fasm.
Its for Dos and the wav is limited to about 50k, (its just a demo, of SB).
If you need the test wav let me know.