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* [linux-dvb] [ANNOUNCE] DVB API improvements
@ 2008-09-23 21:16 Mauro Carvalho Chehab
       [not found] ` <a3ef07920809231506h722c9fd4h1e3b8c3e40ca32cb@mail.gmail.com>
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab @ 2008-09-23 21:16 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: DVB ML

After years of discussions, several patch series and two different proposed
approaches, LinuxTV developers finally decided that S2API is the better
technical proposal and should be accepted as the way to allow supporting newer
DTV standards, starting with DVB-S2.

As previously announced at http://linuxtv.org/news.php?entry=2008-09-19.mchehab,
a representative group of active developers at LinuxTV community attended the
first V4L/DVB Summit, that started with the V4L/DVB miniconf at Linux
Plumbers/2008. Several other additional formal (BOF's) and informal meetings
happened there, in the benefit of the improvement of the development of
multimedia drivers and core.

During the miniconf, both Multiproto API (proposed by Manu) and S2API (proposed
by Steven), were presented. A technical discussion was made during the DVB BOF
session in order to compare the two proposals and check for the
need/convenience of other core internal changes to draw an evolution timeline
for DVB.

The DVB BOF had the presence of the following LinuxTV members:

	Douglas Schilling Landgraf
	Hans Verkuil
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab 
	Michael Krufky
	Patrick Boettcher
	Steven Toth
	Thierry Merle
	Manjunath Hadlii

We had also a presence of an end-user listening to the BOF (Brandon Fouts).

During the BOF, the LinuxTV members carefully analyzed the pros and cons for
both proposals. At the end, all people present there agreed that S2API is
technically more reliable in time than Multiproto proposal. So it was decided
that S2API will be merged upstream.

The main arguments in favor of S2API over Multiproto are:

	- Future proof – the proposal for S2API is more flexible, easily
	  allowing the addition of newer features and new standard support;

	- Simplicity – S2API patches are very simple, while Multiproto
	  presented a very complex series of changes. Simpler approaches
	  reduces the time for maintaining the source code;

	- Capability of allowing improvements even on the existing standards,
	  like allowing diversity control that starts to appear on newer DVB
	  devices.

Some improvements were proposed by the LinuxTV developers, in order to improve
the S2API, including:

	- Adding an API command for querying DVB version, to allow an easier
	  detection by userspace applications;

	- Name the DVB API with S2API as DVB version 5;

	- Update DVB API documentation to reflect the API changes;

	- Remove from DVB API the unused API ioctls, to match the API with the
	  existing implementations.

The author of S2API got the task of adding those suggestions at the proposed
standard and send a pull request to the subsystem maintainer, together with
patches for his drivers that use the newer API.

It was also discussed that some of the internal Multiproto API changes may be
needed in other to support some of the other existing DVB-S2 drivers that were
developed considering Multiproto API. Internal changes can be added at any time
without producing problems in the user API.

The group aims to have a unified in-kernel DVB-S2 HVR4000 / TT-3200 tree (that
also supports all of the derivative CX24116 / STB0899 known products) within 4
weeks from the announcement, hopefully in time for kernel 2.6.28. For that, we
would like to ask Manu to port his drivers to the new API.

The end goal is to add proper support for all devices that would have been
supported by multiproto and S2API alike available.

There are already volunteers working or that have offered to work on Kaffeine
and MythTV S2API support.

We still need volunteers to work on dvb-apps support. If you feel that you like
contribute, please be our guest!

We would like to thank you all that contributed for those discussions and
improvements to happen,

Mauro Carvalho Chehab
V4L/DVB Maintainer 

_______________________________________________
linux-dvb mailing list
linux-dvb@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-dvb

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: [linux-dvb] [ANNOUNCE] DVB API improvements
@ 2008-09-25  3:23 Hans Verkuil
  2008-09-25  3:44 ` Manu Abraham
  2008-09-25  3:57 ` Manu Abraham
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Hans Verkuil @ 2008-09-25  3:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Markus Rechberger
  Cc: Manu Abraham, Greg KH, Andrew Morton, Linus Torvalds, DVB ML

> On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 11:41 PM, VDR User <user.vdr@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:21 AM, Mauro Carvalho Chehab
>> <mchehab@infradead.org> wrote:
>>> The decision were already taken by the group.
>>>
>>> It should be noticed also that the public announcement took some time
>>> to
>>> be ready, since we all carefully reviewed it to reflect the
>>> understanding
>>> that the group had.
>>>
>>> Both API's work, and people needed to choose between one of the
>>> proposals.
>>>
>>> Each one there had enough time to read and understand each proposal,
>>> since
>>> the patches were available more than one week before the meeting, and
>>> everybody were aware that the decision are scheduled to happen during
>>> LPC.
>>>
>>> Each one voted based on their own technical analysis, on a meeting that
>>> took about 2:30 hours, on the day after the presentations. People had
>>> enough time there to discuss, explain their ideas with the help of a
>>> whiteboard, decide and improve the proposal.
>>>
>>> S2API was choosen, since it was considered the better proposal for
>>> everybody there. None of the presents voted for Multiproto.
>>>
>>> Now that the decision were already taken, it is not time anymore to
>>> argue
>>> in favor to any other proposals. We need to move ahead and finally add
>>> support for DVB-S2 and the remaining missing digital TV's at kernel.
>>>
>>> Thank you and everyone else involved on adding support for the missing
>>> standards.
>>>
>>> Let's move to the next step: finally add API changes and drivers for
>>> DVB-S2 and prepare support for the remaining missing standards.
>>
>> It's no secret to anyone that there has been foul play, and blatantly
>> clear there is bias against Manu himself, and multiproto as a result,
>> based on personal differences & past conflicts.  You can't possibly
>> expect the dvb community to believe a fair & balanced meeting took
>> place to discuss these proposals when half the people there already
>> signed on for s2api, and the other half don't have the knowledge &
>> experience with dvb to make well-informed decisions.  You can't
>> possibly think people will believe any of you (who've openly admitted
>> support for s2api) spent 2 seconds defending multiproto, or even
>> assessing the proposal from an unbias technical standpoint.
>>
>> It's very convenient that you've completely ignored multiple requests
>> for more in-depth details that actually prove your points have real
>> technical merit and aren't just the result of some self-interest
>> politics and b.s.  Yet, you had no problem writing paragraphs about
>> how the decision has been made and everyone should just accept it.
>> Sorry, people aren't going to just accept it because this whole thing
>> has been tainted by misleading people, misrepresenting the truth, and
>> sometimes flat out lying.
>>
>> Valuable members of the community have turned, and are turning away
>> because of how poorly dvb has been maintained, and how self-serving
>> some people act.  I'm thankful that more people are being exposed &
>> becoming aware of what's been going on in hopes that at the very least
>> some kind of steps will be taken to stop the misuse & abuse of power
>> at the front of the dvb train.
>>
>> Again, if there is truth to your claims that s2api is the best
>> technical solution, then convince us all by providing tangible proof
>> rather then expecting everyone to take your word for it while ignoring
>> our requests for such information.  You have an obligation to the
>> community to justify your actions, and be held accountable for them.
>>
>
> There hasn't been much positive feedback here! How about let's talk to
> split the
> v4l and dvb development in order to not give Mauro the full authority
> over the whole
> 2 subsystems where he hardly anything contributed (to the second part).
>
> Don't see this as a flamewar, Andrew Morton and a few others are
> following that discussion now.
>
> Mauro as for you try to justify your step technically, the only point
> we've seen for now was from
> Patrick Boettcher (which was a good one from his side) but also the
> other involved people (within that
> 8 people group in Portland should point out their opinion and
> technical objections/reasons now).
>
> Officially it looks like you had 3 people supporting the Stevens
> proposal and 5 people who didn't know about
> the framework at all and explaining them that the DVB-S2 step is the
> better one to go whereas you had
> noone representing the multiproto path. Such a vote is highly doubtful
> then.
>
> Hans Hverkuil:
> I saw you in IRC that you support that proposal please also state out
> your opinion and/or ask your questions
> what/why things have been done like they are done in the multiproto
> tree and why you don't support it.
>
> It finally can really end up with a good solution either multiproto or
> S2 but everyone should understand and not only
> a few people.

These are my reasons for voting in favor of the S2 API. Note that I looked
at the public API part as that is the hard part of these patches. I've
created several V4L2 APIs in the past so I know how important that is.

1) It's pretty much guaranteed to be future proof by its very design. It
is next to impossible to predict what they will come up with next in the
future, so this is a very important property.

2) It makes it easy to set separate properties, so you can 'fine-tune' the
tuner, so to speak. Or retrieve other tuner properties that way. Basically
it gives the application fine-grained control of the tuner properties,
which is rather nice.

3) A consideration for me is that this API can be used equally well for
the V4L2 analog tuner side. There is nothing DVB specific about it. It
would solve some long-standing issues I have with LNA in analog tuners and
I'm seriously thinking of adding support for this to V4L2. It's nice to be
able to use the same external and internal APIs for tuners in both
subsystems.

No doubt the discussions would have been more lively had Manu been
present, but I doubt it would have made any difference. The discussions
were kept on a technical level, there were no conspiracy plots or any of
that nonsense. It's an API for crying out loud, not the end of the world.
Just work with Steve to convert the current devices in the multiproto tree
to use this API. If there is anything missing kick Steve and he'll have to
add whatever is needed. That's *his* responsibility and he accepted that
during the discussions.

The only reason I replied at all is that I thought it a fair request to
have more detailed information on the reasoning behind the decision.

I do not intend to discuss this further, mostly because all this has been
discussed to death already. Two competing APIs, one 'wins'. That's life
and it sucks if your API doesn't get in. I can totally understand that
Manu is unhappy. Just take a vacation from driver programming for a week
or so (that worked for me in the past) and when you're over it start
making sure your drivers are supported by the kernel and your users are
happy. That's where the real satisfaction of kernel programming comes
from, after all: that users can just install Fedora or Ubuntu and having
their hardware supported out of the box thanks to our collective hard
work.

Best regards,

       Hans


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2008-09-26 16:26 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 34+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2008-09-23 21:16 [linux-dvb] [ANNOUNCE] DVB API improvements Mauro Carvalho Chehab
     [not found] ` <a3ef07920809231506h722c9fd4h1e3b8c3e40ca32cb@mail.gmail.com>
2008-09-24  0:36   ` Janne Grunau
2008-09-24  0:55     ` Markus Rechberger
2008-09-24  1:37       ` hermann pitton
2008-09-24  2:04       ` Janne Grunau
2008-09-24  2:34         ` Kristiadi Himawan
2008-09-24  4:00           ` BOUWSMA Barry
     [not found] ` <48D9F6F3.8090501@gmail.com>
2008-09-24  9:11   ` Patrick Boettcher
2008-09-24  9:34     ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-24 10:25     ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-24 11:05       ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-24 15:21       ` Mauro Carvalho Chehab
     [not found]         ` <a3ef07920809241441gea2c09al6e2ed32589ad6fa4@mail.gmail.com>
     [not found]           ` <d9def9db0809241901g56a54750kbfccecc77b111ec7@mail.gmail.com>
2008-09-25  2:47             ` Michael Krufky
2008-09-25  2:49               ` Markus Rechberger
2008-09-25  3:04                 ` hermann pitton
2008-09-25  3:18                   ` Markus Rechberger
2008-09-25  3:05                 ` Christophe Thommeret
2008-09-25  3:13                   ` Markus Rechberger
2008-09-25 12:50                 ` Simon Kenyon
2008-09-25  3:28               ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-25  9:55                 ` Mauro Carvalho Chehab
     [not found] ` <48DB6A94.2040508@linuxtv.org>
     [not found]   ` <d9def9db0809250345v674861a0k3d4b5f2c765e4152@mail.gmail.com>
2008-09-25 11:13     ` Janne Grunau
2008-09-25 11:27       ` Markus Rechberger
     [not found]   ` <alpine.LFD.1.10.0809250822390.29643@areia.chehab.org>
     [not found]     ` <a3ef07920809250811n15c620ceg68f9e92c58de403b@mail.gmail.com>
     [not found]       ` <20080925223817.34c81302@gmail.com>
     [not found]         ` <a3ef07920809260812j3dbb3692r3a5c194681425a2a@mail.gmail.com>
2008-09-26 15:37           ` Devin Heitmueller
2008-09-26 16:07             ` VDR User
2008-09-26 16:26               ` Devin Heitmueller
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2008-09-25  3:23 Hans Verkuil
2008-09-25  3:44 ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-25  3:57 ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-25  4:04   ` Christophe Thommeret
2008-09-25  4:13     ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-25  4:31       ` Christophe Thommeret
2008-09-25  4:37         ` Manu Abraham
2008-09-25  4:58         ` Manu Abraham

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