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From:   Okash Khawaja <okash.khawaja@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri, 12 Jul 2019 10:24:31 +0100
Message-ID: <CAOtcWM2zV_VbWGu65tQ6j9Q+v_3Una3SarXrb6_3JRxOzZJzxA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Staging status of speakup
To:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc:     devel@driverdev.osuosl.org, Kirk Reiser <kirk@reisers.ca>,
        Simon Dickson <simonhdickson@gmail.com>,
        "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." 
        <speakup@linux-speakup.org>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org>,
        Christopher Brannon <chris@the-brannons.com>
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On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 9:38 AM Greg Kroah-Hartman
<gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 07, 2019 at 08:57:10AM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 06, 2019 at 08:08:57PM +0100, Okash Khawaja wrote:
> > > On Fri, 15 Mar 2019 20:18:31 -0700
> > > Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 01:01:27PM +0000, Okash Khawaja wrote:
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > We have made progress on the items in TODO file of speakup driver in
> > > > > staging directory and wanted to get some clarity on the remaining
> > > > > items. Below is a summary of status of each item along with the
> > > > > quotes from TODO file.
> > > > >
> > > > > 1. "The first issue has to do with the way speakup communicates
> > > > > with serial ports.  Currently, we communicate directly with the
> > > > > hardware ports. This however conflicts with the standard serial
> > > > > port drivers, which poses various problems. This is also not
> > > > > working for modern hardware such as PCI-based serial ports.  Also,
> > > > > there is not a way we can communicate with USB devices.  The
> > > > > current serial port handling code is in serialio.c in this
> > > > > directory."
> > > > >
> > > > > Drivers for all external synths now use TTY to communcate with the
> > > > > devices. Only ones still using direct communication with hardware
> > > > > ports are internal synths: acntpc, decpc, dtlk and keypc. These are
> > > > > typically ISA cards and generally hardware which is difficult to
> > > > > make work. We can leave these in staging.
> > > >
> > > > Ok, that's fine.
> > > >
> > > > > 2. "Some places are currently using in_atomic() because speakup
> > > > > functions are called in various contexts, and a couple of things
> > > > > can't happen in these cases. Pushing work to some worker thread
> > > > > would probably help, as was already done for the serial port
> > > > > driving part."
> > > > >
> > > > > There aren't any uses of in_atomic anymore. Commit d7500135802c
> > > > > "Staging: speakup: Move pasting into a work item" was the last one
> > > > > that removed such uses.
> > > >
> > > > Great, let's remove that todo item then.
> > > >
> > > > > 3. "There is a duplication of the selection functions in
> > > > > selections.c. These functions should get exported from
> > > > > drivers/char/selection.c (clear_selection notably) and used from
> > > > > there instead."
> > > > >
> > > > > This is yet to be done. I guess drivers/char/selection.c is now
> > > > > under drivers/tty/vt/selection.c.
> > > >
> > > > Yes, someone should update the todo item :)
> > > >
> > > > > 4. "The kobjects may have to move to a more proper place in /sys.The
> > > > > discussion on lkml resulted to putting speech synthesizers in the
> > > > > "speech" class, and the speakup screen reader itself
> > > > > into /sys/class/vtconsole/vtcon0/speakup, the nasty path being
> > > > > handled by userland tools."
> > > > >
> > > > > Although this makes logical sense, the change will mean changing
> > > > > interface with userspace and hence the user space tools. I tried to
> > > > > search the lkml discussion but couldn't find it. It will be good to
> > > > > know your thoughts on this.
> > > >
> > > > I don't remember, sorry.  I can review the kobject/sysfs usage if you
> > > > think it is "good enough" now and see if I find anything
> > > > objectionable.
> > > >
> > > > > Finally there is an issue where text in output buffer sometimes gets
> > > > > garbled on SMP systems, but we can continue working on it after the
> > > > > driver is moved out of staging, if that's okay. Basically we need a
> > > > > reproducer of this issue.
> > > > >
> > > > > In addition to above, there are likely code style issues which will
> > > > > need to be fixed.
> > > > >
> > > > > We are very keen to get speakup out of staging both, for settling
> > > > > the driver but also for getting included in distros which build
> > > > > only the mainline drivers.
> > > >
> > > > That's great, I am glad to see this happen.  How about work on the
> > > > selection thing and then I can review the kobject stuff in a few
> > > > weeks, and then we can start moving things for 5.2?
> > >
> > > Hi Greg,
> > >
> > > Apologies for the delay. I de-duplicated selection code in speakup to
> > > use code that's already in kernel (commit ids 496124e5e16e and
> > > 41f13084506a). Following items are what remain now:
> > >
> > > 1. moving kobjects location
> > > 2. fixing garbled text
> > >
> > > I couldn't replicate garbled text but Simon (also in CC list) is
> > > looking into it.
> > >
> > > Can you please advise on the way forward?
> >
> > I don't think the "garbled text" is an issue to get this out of staging
> > if others do not see this.  It can be fixed like any other bug at a
> > later point if it is figured out.
> >
> > The kobject stuff does need to be looked at.  Let me carve out some time
> > next week to do that and I will let you know what I see/recommend.
>
> At first glance, this might all be just fine.
>
> But, I can't quite figure out what some files are doing.  No matter
> what, you will need Documentation/ABI/ entries for the speakup code for
> these sysfs files.
>
> Can you make up a patch to create a
> drivers/staging/speakup/sysfs-speakup file with the needed information?
> That way it will be much easier to determine exactly what these sysfs
> files do and my review can be easier, and perhaps not needed at all :)

Thanks for looking into this. I agree these descriptions will
generally be helpful for future also.

Will get back to you once it's done.

Okash