> > drivers to ask for specific minor numbers (so you can give your devices > > fixed minor numbers using insmod options). And this has _NOTHING_ to do > > with the API visible to the applications. > > It has to do with the API visible to the driver. Yes. Why do you mix the two? These are completely separate issues. > > Such clashes shouldn't happen as v4l has ioctl number ranges for driver > > private stuff which can be used for such tests and shouldn't cause > > clashes with new, official ioctls. > > I did not know that - thanks. Where do I find notes on this ? BASE_VIDIOCPRIVATE is defined in videodev.h and used by various drivers in drivers/media/video > > Beside that I don't see why breaking applications is a problem for > > _experimental_ interfaces. On the one hand you want to have the > > It is a problem because I want as many people as possible to try them. > This is the only way to work out installation dependent bugs. There is a > lot of variety out there: Redhat, Mandrake, Slackware, Suse, ix86, > PowerPC, Alpha, Sparc.. Each is a little different. And how installation issues are related to API design / testing? > > flexibility to change interfaces easily to test them, on the other hand > > you care alot about compatibility and stuff. You can't get both, I > > don't see a way to do that without making either the drivers or the > > applications (or both) very complex. > > Now here you are wrong. C have not changed in a while and you can still > write any programs in it ;) As for complexity.. I don't mind 10000 line > file if it is backed up by good algorithm. The good news is that with this > approach we separate interface stuff from driver dependent stuff - and, > hence, the most complex part can be easily tested. I doubt this. IMHO the complex part isn't the read/write interface and the string parsing (I'd expect this can easily separated out into some kind of library / kernel module / whatever). The complex part is to keep the backward compatibility while changing/improving the interfaces (which is one of your goals with the new approach, right?), and I don't see a way to handle that in generic, driver-independant code ... Gerd -- Netscape is unable to locate the server localhost:8000. Please check the server name and try again.
