Frank Rowand wrote: > Helge Deller wrote: > > > > Am Fri, 22 Oct 1999 schrieb Alex deVries: > > > On Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Frank Rowand wrote: > > > > Ok, tirade mode off. This is where my newbie status becomes apparent. Please > > > > excuse any foot in mouth here. I looked at the Puffin web page and didn't > > > > notice anything about the process of making sure that code that is submitted > > > > has some minimal level of quality. Is it just a matter of the community > > > > applying peer pressure? > > > > > > In fact, it's *ALL* about the community applying pressure. > > > > > > If the code in head.S is a bit rough, remember that it was just about the > > > first PA-RISC assembler that Helge or Philipp had ever written, so do keep > > > that in mind. Also, at the start of the project, there was a very > > > conscious effort to only be concerned with 1.1 code. It doesn't surprise > > > me in the least that it's not 2.0 compliant. > > > > > > I agree that the code is unreadable though; I've simply passed it off on > > > not being able to understand parisc assembler well enough. > > > > > > We'd all appreciate it if you could commit appropriate changes to make the > > > code clearer. > > > > > > - Alex > > > > Thanks Alex, > > > > Yes, we all know that the boot-loader really needs a complete clean-up, and as > > it looks like Iīm the maintainer of the bootloader. > > > > Itīs really funny to see people from HP talking to the list and saying somthing > > about code-quality, but only as a little reminder: > > When I wrote the bootloader I had no documentation on bootloading from HP at > > all, no knowledge of parisc and got it only working with trial & error methods > > in day and night-sessions. More, itīs first goal was to get at least a kernel > > booted so that the real kernel-development could start. (See my messages in the > > > > First, thanks to all for the gentle replies. I like this community!! > > Alex, I guess I wasn't clear enough about what my issue was. I wasn't complaining > about the actual code (I try to avoid that, as long as code is mostly correct > (works)). My concern was that I, with twelve years experience with PA-RISC > (including four different OSs - MPE, NextStep, HP-RT, and HP-UX), had to go to > external documentation to read what is trivial code (a PDC call) when a > one line comment would have made it obvious that the code was calling > PDC_BLOCK_TLB(). For me, just annoying - for someone who might be missing one > or two of the bits of knowledge, potentially a multi-hour sidetrack to > understand some trivial code. I want to encourage people to make the code > easily readable so I don't have to waste a lot of time when my help is requested > to debug or contribute code. > > Helge, I wasn't complaining about the boot-loader, I think you are mixing two > different threads together. And I'm not complaining about the algorithms, > the instructions coded, correctness of code, or anything like that. I'm just > saying that the sequence that I had to read in head.S to figure out the > cause of the HPMC on the C3000 needed at least a comment to make it readable > without having to know about and consult external documents. (And Grant made > a good point that using defines instead of numbers can also increase > readability significantly). > > And yes, I suspect that adding the comment to the code will be my first > submission to parisc linux (how embaressing to submit a comment before > submitting any code!). > Sorry I haven't responded to this thread earlier .... (Spent last week traveling ...) I've been working on trying to figure out how the boot-loader works, and get it to work on the C200+ (which is PA-RISC 2.0) I'm going to assume the C3000 is also PA-RISC 2.0 also. I've gone through and attempted to clean up clean up the code and put in comments so that I could understand it. (I've attach my modified head.S. Be gentle .... this is my first attempt at PA-RISC assembly) Since there seems to be other interest in getting this to work, I'd be very interested in sharing what I have learned, and working with others to get this to work. -Ryan Bradetich who is finally home again. P.S I really want to help on this port, but I can't until it boots on the C200. > > Thanks all, > > Frank Rowand > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe: send e-mail to parisc-linux-request@thepuffingroup.com with > `unsubscribe' as the subject.