Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261567AbVCOURs (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:17:48 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261295AbVCOURI (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:17:08 -0500 Received: from isilmar.linta.de ([213.239.214.66]:20956 "EHLO linta.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261874AbVCOUPE (ORCPT ); Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:15:04 -0500 Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:15:03 +0100 From: Dominik Brodowski To: Greg KH Cc: dtor_core@ameritech.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Kay Sievers Subject: Re: [RFC] Changes to the driver model class code. Message-ID: <20050315201503.GA3591@isilmar.linta.de> Mail-Followup-To: Dominik Brodowski , Greg KH , dtor_core@ameritech.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Kay Sievers References: <20050315170834.GA25475@kroah.com> <20050315193415.GA26299@kroah.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050315193415.GA26299@kroah.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6+20040907i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1308 Lines: 30 On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:34:15AM -0800, Greg KH wrote: > > And what about device_driver and device structure? Are they going to > > be changed over to be separately allocated linked objects? > > The driver stuff probably will be, and the device stuff possibly. > However, they are used by a very small ammount of core code (the bus > drivers), so changing that interface is not that important at this time. So this means every device will have yet another reference count, and you need to be aware of _each_ lifetime to write correct code. And the _reference counting_ is the hard thing to get right, so we should make _that_ easier. The existing class API was a step towards this direction, and with the changes you're suggesting here we'd do two jumps backwards. > > If not then its enouther reason to keep original class interface - > > uniformity of driver model interface. > > Ease-of-use trumps uniformity Ease-of-use, maybe. However, it also means ease-of-getting-reference-counting-wrong. And reference counting trumps it all :) Thanks, Dominik - 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/