Re: [hfdb] Hello!

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 00:12, Dan Korostelev wrote:
> What this mailing list is about? How can I help? :) Thanks!

A big welcome!

We're about world domination. Unfortunately we have to narrow our scope
to get anything done about that :)

So, this particular project is about a hardware database, to contain
information useful to free software projects. This includes:
 - device ids
 - drivers
 - kernels/ os support
 - library/ app/ utility (this one's not so well defined yet)

Our plan is to do it The Right Way, which may well mean restructuring
our tables a couple of times - whatever's needed to ensure we have a
robust design and good quality data. If it takes a little longer, that's
OK. Quality, followed by quantity - we will have both to be sure :)

In that vein, our intention is to accept submissions (at least
initially) just via email. That way, we can get back to the submitter
for more info if/ as needed, to help us maximize the comprehensiveness
of this DB's content.

Very preliminary schema, coutesy James Lowden (I always think "get the
Lowdown, from Mr Lowden" :), if you wish to peruse and/ or comment, is
here:

http://www.schemamania.org/projects/chd/chd.dia
http://www.schemamania.org/projects/chd/chd.sql

Finally, the current plan, short of a better one, is to add chunks of
existing DBs as we get time - for example, the LinuxPrinting.org DB, and
the pciids.sf.net PCI ID database. There is also USB, firewire, wireless
divices, and various others. Once we have a reasonable cross section
included in the schema/ DB, it will make sense to start accepting
submissions. We will also generate various output formats (first on the
list is the HAL xml format needs).

cheers
zen