Message-ID: <3A89ACF0.142CB71B@sgi.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 13:53:52 -0800
From: LA Walsh <law@sgi.com>
Organization: Trust Technology, SGI
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: torvalds@transmeta.com
CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: To Linus: kdb in 2.4?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org

I'm wondering about the possibility of re-examining the idea of a kernel debugger
option distributed with 2.4.  

I'm thinking that it could be a great teaching tool to break and examine structures,
variables, process states, as well as an aid to people who may not have a grasp
of the entire kernel but need to write device drivers.

It's easy for someone who's "grown up" with Linux to know it all so thoroughly 
that such a tool seems fluff.  But even the best mechanics on new cars use complex
diagnostic tools to do car repair.  Sure there may be experts that designed the engine
that wouldn't need it, but large numbers of people need to repair cars or modify them for
their purposes.  Having tools to aid in that isn't so much a crutch as it is
a learning tool.  It's like being able to look at the characters of the alphabet
individually before one learns to comprehend the entirety of the writings of Buddha.

Certainly Buddha doesn't need to know how to read to know his own writings -- and
certainly, if everyone meditates and 'evolves' to their Buddha nature, they wouldn't
need to read the texts or recognize the letters either.  

But not everyone is at the same place on the mountain (or even the same mountain, for
that matter).

In wisdom, one would, I posit, understand others are in different places and may
find it useful to have tools to learn to read before they comprehend.  

Just my 2-4 cents on the matter...
-- 
L A Walsh                        | Trust Technology, Core Linux, SGI
law@sgi.com                      | Voice: (650) 933-5338
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/