Getting started with HAL?

[Matthew Mastracci]

(please ignore my previous message - I've subscribed to the list so that the 
mail can go through without moderator approval)

I'm looking for some more information on getting started with HAL
hacking.  Robert Love's gnome-volume-manager screenshot has inspired me
to get my Atech 9-in-1 card reader to work flawlessly under linux.  ;)

So far, it looks like this effort might lay in a number of different
places:

 - HAL, for setting up the appropriate device files and media change
notification (would this be in the agents directory)?
 - Possibly: Linux Kernel, for creating a driver specific to the
hardware (for device media change notification)

It looks like the the SCSI support in HAL might not be as fleshed out as
the IDE SCSI support.  I can't seem to get the volumes to show in
hal-device-manager under the PRO-IX node (the device itself).  I don't
seem to see any "PropertyModified" entries for SCSI devices on higher
LUNs either.  I'm investigating hal_block.c to see if I can figure out
where things might be going wrong.

For inspiration, I tested the card reader out under Windows - it's not
the smoothest experience.  I don't think Windows even realizes when I
insert/remove a media card.  I'm hoping to have a system that beats the
pants off Windows for reacting to media insertion/removal events.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for what I'm looking to
accomplish?

Thanks!
-- 
Matthew Mastracci <matt at aclaro.com>