Hamish Moffatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > *Real* firmware is not software. But *real* firmware is *firm*, that > > is, you can't change it easily: it's in a ROM. And nobody is asking > > us to distribute it. > > Now there's a bizarre twist on the idea that everything is software.
I don't know anyone who has said that "everything is software". > Are you saying that firmware in ROM, which in most cases IS "programs, > routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of the > hardware and direct its operation"[1], is NOT SOFTWARE? But no, I misspoke. I'm happy to grant the stuff in the ROM is software, in one sense, but not in another--it can't be changed (it isn't *soft*). For this reason, the term "firmware" has become customary. But the term firmware does not mean "whatever runs on the peripheral device". Thomas
