From: Norbert Schade (norbert.schade@SigmaTel.com)
Date: Tue Apr 25 2006 - 16:14:01 EDT
Hi everybody,
I wonder who is still on the reflector.
Thought i'd share some news on the use of UPDF.
Some of you may remember that i joined Oasis Semiconductor in 2004 (BTW:
Oasis has been acquired by SigmaTel in September 2005. but our host
software department was not affected too much).
Pretty soon after i joined the group we decided that the set of UPDF
schemas could help us well in some areas.
We started using it as part of our specifications to avoid ambiguous
descriptions of driver features and according parameters. That proved to
be very reliable and we are still doing it today.
A bit later we thought about using the same xml instances we already got
due to the specifications in the real drivers.
Ok, a larger effort.
And we needed some time.
Guess what? We have it working.
We are making extensive use of the PWG schemas with focus on the UPDF
schemas in our print and fax drivers. Even in our scanner drivers we use
the string handling as designed in UPDF.
If anybody wants to know further details, i'd be quite open to talk it
over.
Just to mention two cute issues we now love to have:
- string handling
we can change any string in any of our xml locale instances and
immediately validate it in the corresponding UI - without
re-compilation. So we can easily simulate a translator's job at the
customer's site. No translator has to deal with C code or header files.
Any common XML editor will do. Even standard text editors are ok
(however i would not recommend them, as i love the validation feature of
the xml editors).
- Device description
it's convenient to add another media size record to the xml based device
description or just change its values and see it used. I can even do
that after installation. The biggest advantage is that we can easily
agree on unambiguous parameters with customers. They don't have to
understand any source code to see how it's used.
I like it. Ok, may be that's not too much of a surprise.
As a side effect we could prove that all schemas are perfectly usable
for driver development - with one little exception. And it's certainly
not the typical day-by-day use.
But i will explain that in a separate email in a minute.
Other than that everything is just fine.
Our drivers have passed a number of QA cycles in the last half year. So
we are confident we have thoroughly investigated all circumstances.
we have drivers now based on the Semantic Model and the UPDF schemas
under Windows platforms starting from 98SE up to XP.
And if at any time we would face an operating system that makes a more
intense use of xml to describe device capabilities, i wonder, if i could
actually enjoy that. what platform could that be :>)))
Just thought this might be of interest to the group.
Regards
Norbert Schade
Norbert Schade
Host Software Manager
SigmaTel, Inc.
201 Jones Road
Waltham, MA 02451
USA
tel. 1-781-370-8929
fax. 1-781-370-8990
email:norbert.schade@sigmatel.com <mailto:norbert.schade@sigmatel.com>
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