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I wish we had standard hardware-software interfaces -- mandatory by law for consumer electronics -- for all significant components (what is understood by "devic

I wish we had standard hardware-software interfaces -- mandatory by law for consumer electronics -- for all significant components (what is understood by "devices") of computing platforms used for general public, as we have today (to varying extents) for USB host controllers, Ethernet PHYs etc. The typical counter-argument here is that standardizing would stifle innovation (and possibly hit performance), but is that still as impacting as it sounds? For once, innovation seems to have moved to "rear ends" of the devices, and secondly, given the amount of firmware that goes into all sorts of devices these days, any reasonably complex translation doesn't look so penalizing anymore?

creshal 10y ago
It wouldn't really change anything. Just look at printers: They all speak PostScript/PCL or GDI, and haven't seen a single innovation in at least 15 years. Yet somehow, printer drivers are still the single worst piece of software you're likely going to see.
kalleboo 10y ago
It can go both ways. One reason that GSM took over the world was because the initial standard defined not just the over the air interface, but the interfaces between all the individual components in the ground network. The point being so you could mix Ericsson base stations with a Nokia controller, and in that way it increased competition between the equipment manufacturers since they had no lock-in.
minipci1321 10y ago
Hmm... guess I was downvoted for "mandatory by law". I am not in favor of using law here either, that was more a cry of the heart -- I've been spending what seems like entire life on driver development, which is no rocket science in itself but made complex by hardware vendors concealing unimportant information (often for not good reasons, like corporate culture), for so long time that product makers have learned to not even look for it anymore. I really wish we had that process fixed.

creshal 10y ago

It wouldn't really change anything. Just look at printers: They all speak PostScript/PCL or GDI, and haven't seen a single innovation in at least 15 years. Yet somehow, printer drivers are still the single worst piece of software you're likely going to see.

kalleboo 10y ago

It can go both ways. One reason that GSM took over the world was because the initial standard defined not just the over the air interface, but the interfaces between all the individual components in the ground network. The point being so you could mix Ericsson base stations with a Nokia controller, and in that way it increased competition between the equipment manufacturers since they had no lock-in.

minipci1321 10y ago

Hmm... guess I was downvoted for "mandatory by law". I am not in favor of using law here either, that was more a cry of the heart -- I've been spending what seems like entire life on driver development, which is no rocket science in itself but made complex by hardware vendors concealing unimportant information (often for not good reasons, like corporate culture), for so long time that product makers have learned to not even look for it anymore. I really wish we had that process fixed.