Subject: Re: 3c59x.c
To:     andrewm@uow.edu.au (Andrew Morton)
Date:   Tue, 28 Mar 2000 00:02:08 +0800 (SGT)
Cc:     kuznet@ms2.inr.ac.ru (Alexey Kuznetosv),
        becker@scyld.COM (Donald Becker), netdev@oss.sgi.com
In-Reply-To: <38DF7503.D498C734@uow.edu.au> from "Andrew Morton" at Mar 27, 2000 02:49:39 PM
From:   kuznet@ms2.inr.ac.ru (Alexey Kuznetosv)
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Hello!

> Guys, we all know there's a lot of history.  Could we please just
> concentrate on the future?  There are drivers to be got going, no?

Right. Alas, 2.4 is rather present than future tense, so that
let's concentrate on the present yet. 8)


> basically the same structure.  If he could use his experience and
> knowledge to prepare a reference driver for the 2.4 framework, others
> could follow that.

8) If you know the history, you know that it is exactly
which I prayed to make. I am sorry but this proposal was
refused by all the sides. it is question of the past though. 8)


> The other is to actually understand what is going on.  AFAIK there is no
> description of the softnet<->driver interface which allows driver
> writers to gain this understanding.  A simple functional API description
> doesn't cut it - we need to know what the dynamic relationships are,
> what serialisation guarantees the higher layer makes, etc.

Jamal's document covered all the _necessary_ topics with
pretty deep explanations. If you have something to add to the list
of "necessary" topics, please, add.


> Yes, I know of davem's email and Jamal's doc.  They're not enough.  The
> lack of this architectural description will adversely affect Linux's
> overall quality.  Is doing so, in fact.

Ask some concrete questions better. All such documents are result
of dialogue, rather than broadcast from a godlike being.
No questions --- no answers.

BTW why did you have no questions before softnet? 8) 
The situation was much worse that time and its explanations
really required volumes of controversial texts. 8) 

Alexey