Writing Windows VxDs & Device Drivers; Programming Secrets for Virtual Device Drivers

Rating:
Summary: Only book of it's kind
Review: I bought this book about 5 years ago for work to teach myself how to write VxD's and it was invaluable. Windows Me is the last OS that book pertains to, but if you need to learn how to write VxD's this is the book.

Rating:
Summary: Useful but frustrating
Review: I needed to write a basic driver that an application could access through standard Win32 API's - CreatFile, OpenFile, ReadFile, WriteFile, etc. While the author does indeed provide lots of samples that are easy to follow and will work, - they are limited to use for custom or special-purpose I/O access. There is no discussion about the varios types of file or IO systems and types of drivers - i.e., File System Drivers (FSD), Input/Output Supervisor (IOS), Communications (COMM), Miniport, MCI, etc. There is no discussion about how to install & register your driver properly, creation of INF files, etc. So who is this book written for? Hacks that simply want a quick way to access hardware without creating system errors. It is not for engineers that want to create an installable device driver for a common I/O devices and distribute it with their hardware so that it will work seamlessly with the operating system and other existing, professionaly written, application software. If you need to create a driver for a standard I/O device already supported by Microsoft API's, keep looking. If you have a custom i/o board and a low-level driver that can access it & handle interrupts, but plan on providing your own high-level custom API software so your customers can access it (i.e., a proprietary solution), this is for you. Good luck!

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, but limited to hackers.
Review: I needed to write a basic driver that an application could access through standard Win32 API's - CreatFile, OpenFile, ReadFile, WriteFile, etc. While the author does indeed provide lots of samples that are easy to follow and will work, - they are limited to use for custom or special-purpose I/O access. There is no discussion about the varios types of file or IO systems and types of drivers - i.e., File System Drivers (FSD), Input/Output Supervisor (IOS), Communications (COMM), Miniport, MCI, etc. There is no discussion about how to install & register your driver properly, creation of INF files, etc. So who is this book written for? Hacks that simply want a quick way to access hardware without creating system errors. It is not for engineers that want to create an installable device driver for a common I/O devices and distribute it with their hardware so that it will work seamlessly with the operating system and other existing, professionaly written, application software. If you need to create a driver for a standard I/O device already supported by Microsoft API's, keep looking. If you have a custom i/o board and a low-level driver that can access it & handle interrupts, but plan on providing your own high-level custom API software so your customers can access it (i.e., a proprietary solution), this is for you. Good luck!

Rating:
Summary: Great for starters
Review: I sure wish I'd had this book when I started out writing drivers, it would have saved me a ton of time and grief. I too, wish there were more information on specific driver types, such as soundcards, but that stuff is in the DDK anyway, once you know what to look for -- and this book will tell you that, and a lot quicker and better than the DDK will. Any of the other required tools will tell you how to install or load a VXD, so I don't consider that a big problem. I could wish that this book also covered Windows NT, but was extemely glad for the plug and play coverage, which other information sources obfuscate badly. Good information on windows innards, useful to an overall understanding.

Rating:
Summary: Good basic introduction on drivers for windows 95.
Review: I sure wish I'd had this book when I started out writing drivers, it would have saved me a ton of time and grief. I too, wish there were more information on specific driver types, such as soundcards, but that stuff is in the DDK anyway, once you know what to look for -- and this book will tell you that, and a lot quicker and better than the DDK will. Any of the other required tools will tell you how to install or load a VXD, so I don't consider that a big problem. I could wish that this book also covered Windows NT, but was extemely glad for the plug and play coverage, which other information sources obfuscate badly. Good information on windows innards, useful to an overall understanding.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Useful
Review: I'm currently trying to implement a card services interface under Windows 95. This book had something useful and pertinent on almost every page I opened it at. Sometimes I found sections a bit hard to understand, but experimenting with the sample code soon sorted that out. In conclusion a very good book but perhaps a little over-priced in Australia.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Examples, Crisp & Organized Survey of VxDs
Review: The book is well organized, so one can navigate directly to a solution, or simply gain a clear survey of Windows Drivers. Perhaps I'm prejudiced because I found exactly the Driver I needed in the samples - but they are well chosen and supplement the book better than most - truly picturesque in the sense that a picture is worth 100 words. I highly recommend this book for a beginning or intermediate VxD developer.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Examples, Crisp & Organized Survey of VxDs
Review: The book is well organized, so one can navigate directly to a solution, or simply gain a clear survey of Windows Drivers. Perhaps I'm prejudiced because I found exactly the Driver I needed in the samples - but they are well chosen and supplement the book better than most - truly picturesque in the sense that a picture is worth 100 words. I highly recommend this book for a beginning or intermediate VxD developer.

Rating:
Summary: Great for starters
Review: There are not much books on this topic that explain the real problems faced by the starters. This is an excellent book and a MUST for the beginners and students that want to learn system programming

Rating:
Summary: Useful but frustrating
Review: This book is a good overview of Windows 95 VxDs. However, it was EXTREMELY frustrating to use as a guide or tutorial while actually writing a VxD.

There are a large number of errors in both the samples and the descriptions of interfaces. I don't know how such glaring errors could have been published.