Re: [PATCH 1/3] WAN Kconfig: change "depends on HDLC" to "select"

On 5/7/07, Roman Zippel [off-list ref] wrote:

Hi,

On Mon, 7 May 2007, Krzysztof Halasa wrote:

quoted

Roman Zippel [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

HDLC doesn't really look like simple library code, what's up with all the
HDLC_* options?

Sub-modules.

So it's not simple library code, or is it?

quoted

Anyway, what does the patch "screw" exactly?

Normal dependencies, you basically have to manually make sure they are
correct (and it seems with your patch they aren't). Again, _please_ (with
sugar on top) don't use select unless you have a good reason for it.

Yes, mixing select and depends is a recipe for build disasters. Call
me a rabid fanatic, but I would in fact go as far as to say that this
whole "select" thing in the Kconfig process is one big BUG, and not a
feature. People are lazy by nature and would rather just "select" a
dependency for their config option than burden users with several
"depends".

The following rant doesn't apply only to the select above, but
unfortunately, that's precisely what happens when such stuff is
introduced ... they seem like a good idea to the introducer for his
special / rarest-of-rare case, but then others tend to {ab-,mis-}use
it and the use of such primitives soon proliferates even to cases
where they are clearly inapplicable / avoidable.