Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:14:47 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:14:47 -0500 Received: from pop017pub.verizon.net ([206.46.170.210]:22181 "EHLO pop017.verizon.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:14:45 -0500 Message-ID: <3E52DCE6.5090403@verizon.net> Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:24:54 -0500 From: Stephen Wille Padnos User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021212 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Robert P. J. Day" CC: Linux kernel mailing list Subject: Re: a really annoying feature of the config menu structure References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Authentication-Info: Submitted using SMTP AUTH at pop017.verizon.net from [64.223.82.122] at Tue, 18 Feb 2003 19:24:41 -0600 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3696 Lines: 106 Robert P. J. Day wrote: >On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Stephen Wille Padnos wrote: > > > >>[snip] >> >> >> >>> as i see it, this can only get worse. the current >>>erratic and disorganized structure of the config menus >>>is proof of that. >>> >>> comments? >>> >>> >>> >>I think the problem with the "Multimedia" menu is that it's misnamed. >>It should actually be the "tuners" menu - it's there for audio, digital >>video, and video tuners. The same could be said of the networking menu, >>and presumably others. >> >>You can actually reorganize things simply by changing the structure of >>the top-level Kconfig file. With the following patches, I reorganized >>the multimedia options into the form that you are probably looking for. >>(hopefully they won't be mangled by my mailer) >> >>With not too much rewriting (many small changes, I think), the menus can >>be organized much better. >> >>Essentially, each subdirectory has a Kconfig file that does _not_ >>declare itself a standalone menu. This allows a parent to decide >>whether or not to include it in another menu. The menu should only have >>options that pertain to things in its' directory. ie, the Kconfig file >>in drivers/net should not include "Networking" as an option - that is a >>higher level decision (ie, it decides whether or not to include the >>drivers/net config file). >> >>Then, the Kconfig files from various subdirectories can be ordered in >>whatever way makes sense from a user's point of view >> >>--- drivers/media/Kconfig.orig 2003-02-18 17:15:46.000000000 -0500 >>+++ drivers/media/Kconfig.new 2003-02-18 17:25:27.000000000 -0500 >>@@ -2,8 +2,6 @@ >> # Multimedia device configuration >> # >> >>-menu "Multimedia devices" >>- >> config VIDEO_DEV >> tristate "Video For Linux" >> ---help--- >>@@ -32,5 +30,4 @@ >> >> source "drivers/media/dvb/Kconfig" >> >>-endmenu >> >> > >... some patch snipped here ... > > oh, i'm aware that (for example) the multimedia menu stuff >can be fixed if you go into the directory and change the Kconfig >file. but that's exactly the kind of thing i'm trying to >*avoid*. philosophically, it would be ideal to let each >directory be a self-contained bundle of related modules >and the Kconfig menu file that goes with them. > > what has to be avoided is for any of these directories to >give itself a menu label that implies that it's fairly high >up in the food chain, and subsequently leave no way to >incorporate submenus beneath it. (see, eg., "Multimedia") > The only change to "drivers/media/Kconfig" was the removal of the menu and endmenu lines, for exactly the purpose of removing the title. > rearranging the top-level options by having to make changes >to any of the individual subdirectory Kconfig files is just not >an appealing option. > Since the individual files aren't "relocatable" at this point, I think that at least *one* change might be needed :) The idea would be to change it once, and not need to do so again for layout changes. > i realize that all of this sounds like much ado about >nothing, but as more options are added to the kernel, this >is just going to get more unmanageable, but i have no idea >if anyone else thinks this is something worth addressing. > > if not, i'm willing to drop it. > >rday > I think it's worth pursuing - I've had no end of annoyance with USB and ieee1394 configuration (among other things). - Steve - 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/