Re: Adding a new platform

[David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>]

On Thu, 2008-08-21 at 15:02 +1200, Charles Manning wrote:
> 
> In-tree is no silver bullet.
> 
> When people modify internal APIs they will likely fix anything that breaks 
> compilation. However many things are more subtle than that and it is very 
> easy to end up with a driver or other code that compiles but does not work 
> properly.
> 
> Luckily APIs for drivers (the most common stuff that people work on) don't 
> change that much, and the interfaces are reasonably clear. If you want some 
> hell then try working on file systems :-).

File systems show an excellent example of why you're wrong, in fact. The
API for file systems changes quite a lot, and the people who make those
changes do tend to fix up all the in-tree file systems simultaneously,
-- and since they're doing it with a full understanding of the
implications of the change they're making, they usually manage to get
the change _right_.

I find it's more common to introduce subtle errors when the person
modifying the core API _hasn't_ also modified the driver/fs code which
uses that API. Which is what happens when you have out-of-tree code.

I'd rather remove my gonads with a rusty spoon than maintain an
out-of-tree file system.

-- 
dwmw2