Re: [PATCH] Small initializer patch for ide-disk.c

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <bzolnier@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:51:26 -0500, Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com> wrote:
> Andrew Morton wrote:
> > Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com> wrote:
> >
> >>Art Haas wrote:
> >>
> >>>Hi.
> >>>
> >>>This patch adds C99 initializers to the file. It can clearly wait until
> >>>after 2.6.10 is released if you want to send it to Linus.
> >>
> >>The unpatched version is far more readable and maintainable.
> >>
> >
> >
> > I was thinking the exact opposite ;)
> 
> The problem with this (and similar patches to PCI drivers' struct
> pci_device_id arrays) is that a single line explodes into 4-5 or more
> lines, when it is _already_ plainly obvious to the maintainer what each
> field value represents.
> 
> It uses more space without adding value to the maintainer ("I have to
> scroll a lot more to see the same information?  Thanks!").
> 
> Once the struct has exploded from one line per entry to bunches, the
> maintainer is then forced to reverse the damage by creating a macro that
> allows the data to shrink again.  Why not just avoid the expand-shrink
> cycle in the first place?  See example below, from drivers/ide/pci/piix.h.
>
> Of course, Art's patch modifies drivers/ide/*, so Bart's opinion on the
> subject is far more important than mine.

My opinion on this subject is the same as Jeff's.