Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] Physical hard disk drive for win32

[Thiemo Seufer <ths@networkno.de>]

Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Ivan Kalvachev wrote:
> 
> > 2007/10/22, Stefan Weil <weil@mail.berlios.de>:
> > > Ivan Kalvachev schrieb:
> > > > According to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365171.aspx
> > > >
> > > > this function requires Win XP or Vista.
> > > > Is qemu supported only on these?
> > > Good question. The old IOCTL_DISK_GET_DRIVE_GEOMETRY
> > > was also supported for W2K. Will QEMU support W2K as a host
> > > longer than MS does? It would make things easier if we
> > > dropped support for W2K hosts.
> > >
> > > If we need host support for W2K, I'll check another method
> > > to get the disk size (reading size of partition 0) and send
> > > a new patch. Please send your feedback in this case.
> > >
> > > I hope we don't need W95 or W98 host support!?
> > 
> > Why not. :P
> > 
> > Anyway, calling the old ioctl code if the new one fails, should be
> > compatible enough. (and the new structure contains the old one, so no
> > need of having 2 variables).
> 
> It is not just that.  You'll have to guard the new ioctl within #ifdef's 
> so that it still compiles on MinGW, even if that version does not define 
> the constant.
> 
> Staying backwards compatible in this case is so easy, it is not even 
> funny.  (And certainly no reason to groan over having to support it.)

A undirected remark to the general public: If somebody comes up with a
patch for better backward compatibility I'll certainly consider it.


Thiemo
>