Is this a true statement?

[Grant Edwards]

In article <3b3745bd.2217895 at nntp.sprynet.com>, David C. Ullrich wrote:

>>>> He's making a very finicky, nitpicking, and frankly silly point [...] 
>>>
>>>I don't think the point was entirely silly! It was a valid and
>>>interesting point (despite being finicky and nitpicking!)
>>
>>Yes, it's trivially and obviously valid: a driver is a bit
>>pattern, and you can write a bit pattern to a file with Python.
>>
>>If you show an example of how this is a useful and productive
>>way to generate a device driver, _then_ it will be interesting.
>>Until then, it's just somebody chattering to hear themselves
>>talk.
>
>That's a truly remarkable attitude. Nothing is worth knowing
>unless it solves a practical problem right now.

Not true -- but using a Python program to write into a file a
bit pattern that is known a-priori to be a device driver for a
particular OS just isn't interesting (IMO).  If you used a
Python program to _generate_ the bit pattern from some higher
level source, that would be interesting.

>I actually learned something about device drivers from all
>this. Not from something that anyone actually said - I learned
>something about device drivers by assuming that people _must_
>be making much more sense than they _appeared_ to be making,
>and trying to figure out what I could be misconceiving that
>would make all those comments that must actually be sensible
>appear like nonsense to me.
>
>"Chattering to hear themselves talk" indeed.

I apologize -- I really thought that you knew what a device
driver was and you were being intentionally obtuse.

>Figured out the answers for myself last night, then this
>morning the first thing I said was "no, of course in that sense
>you cannot write device drvers in Python".

Not using currently available tools.  I do maintain that it
wouldn't be terribly difficult to do, but for performance and
resource reasons it would be largely an academic exercise.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I put aside my
                                  at               copy of "BOWLING WORLD"
                               visi.com            and think about GUN
                                                   CONTROLlegislation...