Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264346AbUDSLSu (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:18:50 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264352AbUDSLSu (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:18:50 -0400 Received: from mail.shareable.org ([81.29.64.88]:10404 "EHLO mail.shareable.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264346AbUDSLSs (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:18:48 -0400 Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:18:31 +0100 From: Jamie Lokier To: Arjan van de Ven Cc: Sau Dan Lee , Andrew Morton , Tuukka Toivonen , b-gruber@gmx.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: /dev/psaux-Interface Message-ID: <20040419111831.GA13759@mail.shareable.org> References: <20040419015221.07a214b8.akpm@osdl.org> <1082372020.4691.9.camel@laptop.fenrus.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1082372020.4691.9.camel@laptop.fenrus.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1302 Lines: 31 Arjan van de Ven wrote: > well, it's the kernels job to abstract hardware. You don't also expose > raw scsi and ide devices to userspace, you abstract them away and > provide a uniform "block device" interface to userspace. Not quite. Both SCSI and IDE layers offer "generic" access for sending commands to the device which the kernel doesn't understand. > The input layer tries to do the same wrt HID devices and imo it makes > sense. Why should userspace care if a mouse is attached to the USB port > or via the USB->PS/2 connector thingy to the PS/2 port. Requiring > different configuration for both cases, and potentially even requiring > different userspace applications for each type make it sound like > abstracting this away from userspace does have merit. I agree in this case: the touchpad should be handled by the input layer, for uniformity if nothing else. However, what happens when the thing connected to the PS/2 port isn't a mouse or keyboard, just a strange device talking bytes? With 2.4 kernels you could talk to it. -- Jamie - 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/