On Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 10:32:45AM -0400, Bill Davidsen wrote:
No, it is obsolete because we have more than one driver for this
hardware, and the people responsible for network drivers in the kernel
decided some time ago that sk98lin is the one that is obsolete.
A better written driver might still lack some workarounds for broken
hardware or similar problems. Or simply contain some bugs like all
software does.
The important word is not "reliability", it's "maintainability".
And that's something that pays off in the long term.
It was clear that sk98lin would go in the long term, and the only thing
that could be discussed is the when and how of removal.
When you talk about "new information", why did this information not
surface until after the sk98lin driver was removed?
Is there really a problem with "the timing of removal" or would we have
faced exactly the same problems if the removal was timed a year later?
And this is really the essence when I'm saying "removing code improves
the kernel": The goal is to get people to report if the new drivers
aren't usefully stable for them, not to use sk98lin instead without
sending a bug report.
Having different drivers with different sets of bugs and features is
not a situation that should be retained for a longer time.
The underlying question is:
Is there anything better than a quick removal of the obsolete driver to
get people to both test and report bugs with the new driver?
Keeping obsolete drivers longer only for running into exactly the same
problem later isn't an improvement.
cu
Adrian
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
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