Re: [PATCH v6] Add generic exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) function

Stefan Richter
2010-11-15T07:39:45Z

On Nov 15 Bruno Randolf wrote:
> On Sun November 14 2010 17:51:08 Stefan Richter wrote:
> > BTW, isn't "get" more usually used as a prefix for these kinds of
> > functions in kernel APIs? "get" as a suffix more often means "get
> > a reference" alias increase reference count rather than "get the
> > value".
>
> Umm. I don't know and honstly I don't care. I think the API ewma_* is
> consistent. If you have a good reason to change it please let me
> know, otherwise i'd just leave it like it is now.

It is not about consistency of the API in itself but about consistency
with the rest of the kernel. Cf. skb_get vs. get_unaligned and many
more. I for one immediately think of "something is having its
reference count incremented here" when I come across a something_get
when reading code.

I don't know of such a convention being documented anywhere. But for an
overkill of examples of "get" as prefix and suffix, grep for get_ and
_get( in include/. The same convention exists IME with "put" that
either writes a value or drops a reference.

Sorry for bringing this up so late but it is IMO not a trivial point.
--
Stefan Richter
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