[voakbasda]

I recently worked to update a Linux-based system that was originally built by a team that had previously implemented the same product on a microcontroller-based system. The Linux drivers are obviously direct ports of the old subsystems, without any apparent effort to understand or leverage existing kernel drivers or subsystems that could have simplified (or outright replaced) their custom functionality. It is unholy.

Now, this might sound absurd by the standards of today (because it is), but this was the transition that every programmer had to make back when high level languages were introduced. It takes time to adapt to a paradigm shift, so it hardly seems surprising when vestiges of the “old ways” can be seen peeking through the curtains of the new abstraction.