Am Donnerstag den, 14. M=E4rz 2002, um 00:36, schrieb der Mouse:

>>> WHY when i buy a device i cannot know how to use them.  IMHO it's
>>> breaking of basic consumer law.
>> Of course you know how to use them.  They all come with user manuals,
>> after all.
>
> That attitude - that the consumer doesn't need to know anything but
> some miniscule fraction of the interface to the thing, and that the
> jokes that pass for "user manuals" these days are enough to "know how
> to use [the devices]" - is the very problem in question.

Well, here the 'consumers' are people presumably able to read the
chip spec, register definitions, and make programs/drivers to support
those devices.

In the 'old' days, chip manufacturers would give such books away to
get people to design in the chips. The only time an NDA was required
was when the designer was getting a very advanced set of information
on a 'not available for sale' chip. These days however, many chips,
particularly video chips don't have any doc. In the Intel case, I don't=20=

know
why there is such a reluctance to publish the required info,
given  there exists a Linux driver and a FreeBSD driver,
both obtainable from the Intel site...

The only reason I could see having a legal dept. review a publication
in such a case is to make sure all liability disclaimers are legally=20
binding,
which given the usual boiler plate, should not take too long.