From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab Subject: Re: [RFC] What are the goals for the architecture of an in-kernel IR system? Date: Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:11:54 -0200 Message-ID: <4B15161A.80101@redhat.com> References: <4B13BBBE.3010101@redhat.com> <4B14E747.9060208@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <4B14E747.9060208@redhat.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org To: Gerd Hoffmann Cc: Christoph Bartelmus , awalls@radix.net, dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com, j@jannau.net, jarod@redhat.com, jarod@wilsonet.com, jonsmirl@gmail.com, khc@pm.waw.pl, linux-input@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org, superm1@ubuntu.com List-Id: linux-input@vger.kernel.org Gerd Hoffmann wrote: > On 11/30/09 13:34, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote: >> Christoph Bartelmus wrote: >>> Hi Mauro, >>> >>> I just don't want to change a working interface just because it could be >>> also implemented in a different way, but having no other visible >>> advantage >>> than using more recent kernel features. >> >> I agree. The main reasons to review the interface is: >> 1) to avoid any overlaps (if are there any) with the evdev interface; > > Use lirc for raw samples. > Use evdev for decoded data. > > Hardware/drivers which can handle both can support both interfaces. > IMHO it makes no sense at all to squeeze raw samples through the input > layer. It looks more like a serial line than a input device. In fact > you can homebrew a receiver and connect it to the serial port, which was > quite common in pre-usb-ir-receiver times. I agree. > >> 2) to have it stable enough to be used, without changes, for a long >> time. > > It isn't like lirc is a new interface. It has been used in practice for > years. I don't think API stability is a problem here. You're probably right here, but, as, currently, changing the API is not a problem, I don't doubt that the API has changed during those years (I haven't followed lirc API, so this is just an educated guess). So, all I'm saying is that we should do a final review considering API stability before merging it, eventually considering to add a few reserved fields there, if we suspect that we might need more space for some reason. >> True, but even if we want to merge lirc drivers "as-is", the drivers will >> still need changes, due to kernel CodingStyle, due to the usage of >> some API's >> that may be deprecated, due to some breakage with non-Intel >> architectures, due >> to some bugs that kernel hackers may discover, etc. > > I assumed this did happen in already in preparation of this submission? Yes, for just a few drivers that went on the first series of patches (on Jerod's proposal, only 2 drivers were submitted). Cheers, Mauro.