Re: Driver Model 2 Proposal - Linux Kernel Performance v Usability

Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz
2003-09-04T21:40:29Z

Heh. You want stable plugin API.

It will always end as bloat:

(a) you add plugin API
(b) its not sufficient, so you add revision 1 of the API
(you still have to support rev 0 because some plugins are binary-only)
(c) its not sufficient, so you add revision 2 of the API
(now you have 3 versions of API to maintain)
...

Alternatively you can start with over-designed API from the beginning :-).

--bartlomiej

On Thursday 04 of September 2003 23:12, James Clark wrote:
> Why would binary drivers be any harder to debug than the existing binary
> kernel. If you want to debug something use the source code. My proposal
> doesn't remove the need for quality public source code but it does isolate
> the kernel components and allow for 'plugin' use on different kernels both
> old and new.
>
> If a relatively small kernel component can be turned on/off and upgraded at
> will, without changing ANYTHING else, this would be a big step forward.
>
> James
>
> On Thursday 04 Sep 2003 9:29 pm, you wrote:
> > On Thu, 4 Sep 2003, James Clark wrote:
> > > I'm very surprised by the number of posts that have ranted about
> > > Open/Close source, GPL/taint issues etc. This is not about source code
> > > it is about making Linux usable by the masses.
> >
> > How would "making it easier to include impossible to debug
> > device drivers" help towards your goal of making Linux more
> > usable ?