This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Andi Kleen]

<drumroll> ... gets CONFIG_ACCESSIBILITY

menuconfig ACCESSIBILITY
        bool "Accessibility support"
        ---help---
          Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.

One can only guess what is meant by accessbility when asked that 
by oldconfig (don't explain, I know it now) and the help text has about 0% 
additional information over the CONFIG name.

Can the help text be improved please? It should explain that accessibility in 
this case means braille device drivers and possibly other similar devices.

Thanks,

-Andi

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Samuel Thibault]

Andi Kleen, le Thu 01 May 2008 14:09:59 +0200, a écrit :
> <drumroll> ... gets CONFIG_ACCESSIBILITY
> 
> menuconfig ACCESSIBILITY
>         bool "Accessibility support"
>         ---help---
>           Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.
> 
> Can the help text be improved please? It should explain that accessibility in 
> this case means braille device drivers and possibly other similar devices.

If the society was a bit more aware of accessibility troubles in general
(I mean in the street etc.), we wouldn't have to explain the word
</grin>.

Samuel



Add a small explanation of what accessibility is.

Signed-off-by: Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org>

--- linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig.orig	2008-05-01 14:13:03.000000000 +0100
+++ linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig	2008-05-01 14:12:50.000000000 +0100
@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
 	---help---
 	  Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.
 
+	  Accessibility handles all special kinds of hardware devices or
+	  software adapters which help people with disabilities (e.g.
+	  blindness) to use computers.
+
+	  That includes braille devices, speech synthesis, keyboard
+	  remapping, etc.
+
 	  If unsure, say N.
 
 if ACCESSIBILITY

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 02:19:00PM +0100, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> If the society was a bit more aware of accessibility troubles in general
> (I mean in the street etc.), we wouldn't have to explain the word

Blah, an agenda is not an excuse for bad option descriptions.

And btw, the word accessibility in the sense used here doesn't translate
at all into many foreign languages, so the 90% of kernel hackers and
users not native speakers or involved with accessibility would be helped
with it anyway.

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Samuel Thibault]

Christoph Hellwig, le Thu 01 May 2008 11:47:20 -0400, a écrit :
> On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 02:19:00PM +0100, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> > If the society was a bit more aware of accessibility troubles in general
> > (I mean in the street etc.), we wouldn't have to explain the word
> 
> Blah, an agenda is not an excuse for bad option descriptions.

Sure, that's why I provided a patch :)

(I agree that Kconfig helps like "CONFIG_FUSION: Say Y here to get to
see options for Fusion Message Passing Technology (MPT) drivers" do not
help much, I just didn't know that people were now actually caring about
having some real explanations beyond the usual "if you don't know what
it is, you don't need it, just say no")

> And btw, the word accessibility in the sense used here doesn't translate
> at all into many foreign languages,

Right.

Samuel

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Thursday, 1 May 2008 19:01:29 Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Christoph Hellwig, le Thu 01 May 2008 11:47:20 -0400, a écrit :
> > On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 02:19:00PM +0100, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> > > If the society was a bit more aware of accessibility troubles in general
> > > (I mean in the street etc.), we wouldn't have to explain the word
> > 
> > Blah, an agenda is not an excuse for bad option descriptions.
> 
> Sure, that's why I provided a patch :)
> 
> (I agree that Kconfig helps like "CONFIG_FUSION: Say Y here to get to
> see options for Fusion Message Passing Technology (MPT) drivers" do not
> help much, I just didn't know that people were now actually caring about
> having some real explanations beyond the usual "if you don't know what
> it is, you don't need it, just say no")
Speaking of which I remember how I was confused when I found out that this driver 
is the linux driver for "SCI logic" SCSI vmware adapter :-)

> 
> > And btw, the word accessibility in the sense used here doesn't translate
> > at all into many foreign languages,
> 
> Right.
> 
> Samuel
> --
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>

Regards,
	Maxim Levitsky

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Stefan Richter]

Samuel Thibault wrote:
> --- linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig.orig	2008-05-01 14:13:03.000000000 +0100
> +++ linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig	2008-05-01 14:12:50.000000000 +0100
> @@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
>  	---help---
>  	  Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.
>  
> +	  Accessibility handles all special kinds of hardware devices or
> +	  software adapters which help people with disabilities (e.g.
> +	  blindness) to use computers.
> +
> +	  That includes braille devices, speech synthesis, keyboard
> +	  remapping, etc.
> +
>  	  If unsure, say N.

Would you mind replacing also the first sentence by something which 
indicates whether this option alone already changes the kernel build?

Look at the help texts of other menuconfig option items.  Random pick: 
NETDEV_1000:
	[...]
	Say Y here to get to see options for Gigabit Ethernet drivers.
	This option alone does not add any kernel code.
	[...]
	If you say N, all options in this submenu will be skipped and
	disabled.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-==--- -=-= ----=
http://arcgraph.de/sr/

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Samuel Thibault]

Stefan Richter, le Thu 01 May 2008 19:36:25 +0200, a écrit :
> Samuel Thibault wrote:
> >--- linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig.orig	2008-05-01 
> >14:13:03.000000000 +0100
> >+++ linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig	2008-05-01 
> >14:12:50.000000000 +0100
> >@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
> > 	---help---
> > 	  Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.
> > 
> >+	  Accessibility handles all special kinds of hardware devices or
> >+	  software adapters which help people with disabilities (e.g.
> >+	  blindness) to use computers.
> >+
> >+	  That includes braille devices, speech synthesis, keyboard
> >+	  remapping, etc.
> >+
> > 	  If unsure, say N.
> 
> Would you mind replacing also the first sentence by something which 
> indicates whether this option alone already changes the kernel build?

Here it is.

Samuel



Indicate that enabling just CONFIG_ACCESSIBILITY does not add code.

Signed-off-by: Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org>

--- linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig.orig	2008-05-01 19:34:11.000000000 +0100
+++ linux/drivers/accessibility/Kconfig	2008-05-01 19:35:56.000000000 +0100
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 menuconfig ACCESSIBILITY
 	bool "Accessibility support"
 	---help---
-	  Enable a submenu where accessibility items may be enabled.
-
 	  Accessibility handles all special kinds of hardware devices or
 	  software adapters which help people with disabilities (e.g.
 	  blindness) to use computers.
@@ -10,6 +8,11 @@
 	  That includes braille devices, speech synthesis, keyboard
 	  remapping, etc.
 
+	  Say Y here to get to see options for accessibility.
+	  This option alone does not add any kernel code.
+
+	  If you say N, all options in this submenu will be skipped and disabled.
+
 	  If unsure, say N.
 
 if ACCESSIBILITY

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Stefan Richter]

Thanks Samuel.  This way 'make oldconfig' and friends are less irritating.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-==--- -=-= ----=
http://arcgraph.de/sr/

Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help text ...

[Roland]

>> (I agree that Kconfig helps like "CONFIG_FUSION: Say Y here to get to
>> see options for Fusion Message Passing Technology (MPT) drivers" do not
>> help much, I just didn't know that people were now actually caring about
>> having some real explanations beyond the usual "if you don't know what
>> it is, you don't need it, just say no")
>
>Speaking of which I remember how I was confused when I found out that this 
>driver
>is the linux driver for "SCI logic" SCSI vmware adapter :-)

to be exact, it`s  CONFIG_FUSION_SPI and that makes mptspi build, which is
a driver for LSI53C1030 type controller, which also exists in real world.
vmware just emulates this hardware.

>menuconfig FUSION
>        bool "Fusion MPT device support"
>        depends on PCI
>        ---help---
>        Say Y here to get to see options for Fusion Message
>        Passing Technology (MPT) drivers.
>        This option alone does not add any kernel code.

you are right, this is confiusing and confused me and others, too.

not a single word that this is for LSILogic type controllers.

Maybe that can/should be changed to "LSI Fusion MPT device support", "Say Y 
here to get to see options for drivers
based on LSI Fusion Message Passing Technology (MPT)"  !?

regards
roland






List:       linux-kernel
Subject:    Re: This month's price for the most useless new Kconfig help 
text ...
From:       Maxim Levitsky <nadejdalevitsky () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-05-01 17:04:42
Message-ID: 200805012004.42706.maximlevitsky () gmail ! com
[Download message RAW]

On Thursday, 1 May 2008 19:01:29 Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Christoph Hellwig, le Thu 01 May 2008 11:47:20 -0400, a écrit :
> > On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 02:19:00PM +0100, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> > > If the society was a bit more aware of accessibility troubles in 
> > > general
> > > (I mean in the street etc.), we wouldn't have to explain the word
> >
> > Blah, an agenda is not an excuse for bad option descriptions.
>
> Sure, that's why I provided a patch :)
>
> (I agree that Kconfig helps like "CONFIG_FUSION: Say Y here to get to
> see options for Fusion Message Passing Technology (MPT) drivers" do not
> help much, I just didn't know that people were now actually caring about
> having some real explanations beyond the usual "if you don't know what
> it is, you don't need it, just say no")
Speaking of which I remember how I was confused when I found out that this 
driver
is the linux driver for "SCI logic" SCSI vmware adapter :-)

>
> > And btw, the word accessibility in the sense used here doesn't translate
> > at all into many foreign languages,
>
> Right.
>
> Samuel
> --
> 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/
>

Regards,
 Maxim Levitsky