Re: [RFC] select and dependencies in Kconfig

[Timur Tabi <timur@freescale.com>]

Stefan Richter wrote:

> "A... select B" is just a flavor of "A... depends on B", with the
> additional instruction to the Kconfig UIs:  Don't hide A if you can
> silently switch on B.

I think you mean "A... select B" is just a flavor of "B... depends on A".  There is one 
minor difference between the two.

If A is a driver and B is a library, then it's more intuitive to update the Kconfig option 
for A then it is to update the Kconfig option for B.  For example, if I want to add a new 
driver C that uses library B, I can just add this:

C
	select B

If I have to use "depends on", then I would have to change the Kconfig option for B like this:

B
	depends on A || C

And every time I create a new driver that depends on library B, I have to update that 
"depends on" line *in addition to* creating the Kconfig line for the new driver.  If 10 
drivers use library B, you'll have this:

B
	depends on A || C || D || E || F || G || H || I || J || K

> How about throwing "select" out of the Kconfig language and improving
> the UIs instead, so that users find what they want and need?

I know a lot of people don't like 'select', but I prefer it over 'depends on'.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux Kernel Developer @ Freescale