[linux-dvb] Re: Siemens documentation

[Ralph Metzler <rjkm@convergence.de>]

Carsten Koch writes:
 > Ralph Metzler wrote:
 > ....
 > >  > But where Siemens documentation is available ?
 > ....
 > > It isn't.
 > > It is very common in Linux driver development that companies give
 > > developers the documentation under NDA but allow them to release the
 > > finished drivers under the GPL.
 > 
 > Does the NDA keep you from changing the source code, so
 > anyone reading it would no longer need the documentation
 > to understand and possibly enhance it?
 > 
 > What I mean is: would it be legal to use identifiers in
 > the source code that spell out the corresponding function
 > rather than abbreviating it? (as an example, I do not know
 > what a GPIO, a DEBI, a TTB or a fidbirq is).
 >
 > Would it be legal to put comments into the driver that
 > explain every object (including hardware registers and other
 > bug objects) before it is first used?


I can tell you almost everything about the Linux driver sources.
But please first read the available documentation. I will not 
put in comments on obvious things like:

GPIO - General Purpose I/O 
       which almost every PCI bridge has some of

or acronyms directly from the SAA7146 datasheet:

DEBI    - Data Expansion Bus Interface
fidbirq - Field ID B IRQ  

and TTB=Technotrend-Budget (duhh ...) 

The last should really be clear from lines like

        if (dvb->cardtype==DVB_CARD_TT_BUDGET)
                return TTBStart(dvb); 


You can also freely get datasheets for the dual ported RAM, LNB
voltage regulator, the audio DAC and some other chips.


Ralph


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