On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:00:46PM +0530, subbu wrote:
The reason why we have these abstractions is
because beclib functions are written as
OS neutral code and that needs a helper to
do OS specific functions. By eliminating
SA, we will need to make beclib Linux
dependent - something that we would like avoid
for ease of maintenance. Is this approach
not acceptable ? What will is the recommended
way to have part so a driver OS independent ?
We do not recommend it, but recommend to write Linux
specific drivers. Operating systems are quite different and you
get far better drivers if you really optimize them for specific OS.
That's especially important for performance critical drivers like
yours for high speed networking.
Also splitting drivers into generic and OS specific parts typically
leads to poor and overcomplicated design.
Anyways if you really want abstraction elsewhere then use the Linux
names for it. But it's really not recommended.
-Andi
On Thu, 15 May 2008 19:49:27 +0200
Andi Kleen [off-list ref] wrote:
On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:00:46PM +0530, subbu wrote:
quoted
The reason why we have these abstractions is
because beclib functions are written as
OS neutral code and that needs a helper to
do OS specific functions. By eliminating
SA, we will need to make beclib Linux
dependent - something that we would like avoid
for ease of maintenance. Is this approach
not acceptable ? What will is the recommended
way to have part so a driver OS independent ?
We do not recommend it, but recommend to write Linux
specific drivers. Operating systems are quite different and you
get far better drivers if you really optimize them for specific OS.
That's especially important for performance critical drivers like
yours for high speed networking.
Also splitting drivers into generic and OS specific parts typically
leads to poor and overcomplicated design.
Anyways if you really want abstraction elsewhere then use the Linux
names for it. But it's really not recommended.
-Andi
The underlying reason for this is the Linux kernel developers hatred
of abstraction layers is long term maintenance. Once a driver is accepted
into the mainline, the kernel developers may have to do maintenance on
the driver to fix API's or if the original hardware vendor abandons it.
All the abstraction layer just makes this harder. Some drivers do have
some OS independent portions but they are rare, and usually abstract the
hardware not the device model.