* Re: [RFC] New driver information
2007-02-16 13:58 [RFC] New driver information Heikki Orsila
@ 2007-02-16 14:08 ` Thiago Galesi
2007-02-16 14:41 ` Maxim
2007-02-16 17:30 ` Adrian Bunk
2007-02-16 18:48 ` Daniel Barkalow
2 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: Thiago Galesi @ 2007-02-16 14:08 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Heikki Orsila; +Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List
SInce this information does not, in any way, affect the functioning of
the driver... It is not "executable code", I don't see the point of
it.
For "module_licence" we have the restriction of some functions being
used only for GPL code, but for this?!? I really don't see it...
Just think: what would this macro do, "executable-code wise"?
On 2/16/07, Heikki Orsila <shdl@zakalwe.fi> wrote:
> I just read
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/7729
>
> and it occured to me that it would be informative to have a new device
> driver macro. The motivation for the new macro would be 4 issues:
>
> * Is it possible to get specifications for the device?
> * If yes, under what terms? (nda, public)
> * Where to get public specs?
> * How many closed and open drivers in the Linux source tree?
>
> I suggest to add following macro:
>
> MODULE_SPECIFICATION(terms, source);
>
> where "terms" is one of
>
> * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY_NDA
> - specification available to any party for an NDA
> * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY
> - specification available in public, or at least available
> without NDA to any party
> * MODULE_SPEC_RESTRICTED
> - none of the above
>
> and "source":
>
> * contact address for nda specs
> * any public source for a public specification (http://, email address,
> ...)
> * empty string otherwise
>
> I realise this macro somewhat circumvents the purpose of Documentation/
> directory but the idea is to have a direct 1:1 mapping between drivers
> and specification sources so that it would be easy to collect statistics
> of "open" hardware by using grep et al.
>
> What do you think? Useless annotations or useful information?
>
> --
> Heikki Orsila Barbie's law:
> heikki.orsila@iki.fi "Math is hard, let's go shopping!"
> http://www.iki.fi/shd
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
--
-
Thiago Galesi
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread
* Re: [RFC] New driver information
2007-02-16 14:08 ` Thiago Galesi
@ 2007-02-16 14:41 ` Maxim
0 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Maxim @ 2007-02-16 14:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Thiago Galesi; +Cc: Heikki Orsila, Linux Kernel Mailing List
On Friday 16 February 2007 16:08:53 Thiago Galesi wrote:
> SInce this information does not, in any way, affect the functioning of
> the driver... It is not "executable code", I don't see the point of
> it.
>
> For "module_licence" we have the restriction of some functions being
> used only for GPL code, but for this?!? I really don't see it...
>
> Just think: what would this macro do, "executable-code wise"?
>
>
> On 2/16/07, Heikki Orsila <shdl@zakalwe.fi> wrote:
> > I just read
> >
> > http://kerneltrap.org/node/7729
> >
> > and it occured to me that it would be informative to have a new device
> > driver macro. The motivation for the new macro would be 4 issues:
> >
> > * Is it possible to get specifications for the device?
> > * If yes, under what terms? (nda, public)
> > * Where to get public specs?
> > * How many closed and open drivers in the Linux source tree?
> >
> > I suggest to add following macro:
> >
> > MODULE_SPECIFICATION(terms, source);
> >
> > where "terms" is one of
> >
> > * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY_NDA
> > - specification available to any party for an NDA
> > * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY
> > - specification available in public, or at least available
> > without NDA to any party
> > * MODULE_SPEC_RESTRICTED
> > - none of the above
> >
> > and "source":
> >
> > * contact address for nda specs
> > * any public source for a public specification (http://, email address,
> > ...)
> > * empty string otherwise
> >
> > I realise this macro somewhat circumvents the purpose of Documentation/
> > directory but the idea is to have a direct 1:1 mapping between drivers
> > and specification sources so that it would be easy to collect statistics
> > of "open" hardware by using grep et al.
> >
> > What do you think? Useless annotations or useful information?
> >
> > --
> > Heikki Orsila Barbie's law:
> > heikki.orsila@iki.fi "Math is hard, let's go shopping!"
> > http://www.iki.fi/shd
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> >
>
>
I think both sides are right.
I think that documentation about drivers and their specs is a good thing ( i personally spent lot if time to locate it and find that it is unavailable in some cases)
But I agree that it has no place in executable code , instead I think such list can be in /Documentation or even in MAINTAINERS
Regards,
Maxim Levitsky
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread
* Re: [RFC] New driver information
2007-02-16 13:58 [RFC] New driver information Heikki Orsila
2007-02-16 14:08 ` Thiago Galesi
@ 2007-02-16 17:30 ` Adrian Bunk
2007-02-16 18:48 ` Daniel Barkalow
2 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Adrian Bunk @ 2007-02-16 17:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Heikki Orsila; +Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List
On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 03:58:51PM +0200, Heikki Orsila wrote:
> I just read
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/7729
>
> and it occured to me that it would be informative to have a new device
> driver macro. The motivation for the new macro would be 4 issues:
>
> * Is it possible to get specifications for the device?
> * If yes, under what terms? (nda, public)
> * Where to get public specs?
> * How many closed and open drivers in the Linux source tree?
>
> I suggest to add following macro:
>
> MODULE_SPECIFICATION(terms, source);
>
> where "terms" is one of
>
> * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY_NDA
> - specification available to any party for an NDA
> * MODULE_SPEC_ANY_PARTY
> - specification available in public, or at least available
> without NDA to any party
> * MODULE_SPEC_RESTRICTED
> - none of the above
>
> and "source":
>
> * contact address for nda specs
> * any public source for a public specification (http://, email address,
> ...)
> * empty string otherwise
>
> I realise this macro somewhat circumvents the purpose of Documentation/
> directory but the idea is to have a direct 1:1 mapping between drivers
> and specification sources so that it would be easy to collect statistics
> of "open" hardware by using grep et al.
>
> What do you think? Useless annotations or useful information?
Useless, since noone will maintain this information (e.g. an
"email address" might no longer be valid several years from now, or a
company might change the policies for releaseing information).
And also useless since there doesn't seem to be a serious use case.
> Heikki Orsila
cu
Adrian
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread* Re: [RFC] New driver information
2007-02-16 13:58 [RFC] New driver information Heikki Orsila
2007-02-16 14:08 ` Thiago Galesi
2007-02-16 17:30 ` Adrian Bunk
@ 2007-02-16 18:48 ` Daniel Barkalow
2 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Daniel Barkalow @ 2007-02-16 18:48 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Heikki Orsila; +Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List
On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Heikki Orsila wrote:
> I just read
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/7729
>
> and it occured to me that it would be informative to have a new device
> driver macro. The motivation for the new macro would be 4 issues:
>
> * Is it possible to get specifications for the device?
> * If yes, under what terms? (nda, public)
> * Where to get public specs?
> * How many closed and open drivers in the Linux source tree?
This doesn't make any sense as a driver macro, because it's per device,
not per driver. E.g., the sdhci driver drives a number of devices,
including both well-documented devices and devices whose only
documentation is that the PCI ID matches (and they work with only a few
quirks).
On the other hand, a kconfig-readable table of PCI, USB, etc IDs with this
information isn't a bad idea, especially if the drivers actually depend on
it (so that it has to be kept up to date, at least as far as the
device/driver mapping).
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread