Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 23.128.96.18 as permitted sender) client-ip=23.128.96.18;
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <20220125202118.63362-1-andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com> <991e988b-7225-881b-a59a-33c3eae044be@suse.de>
In-Reply-To: <991e988b-7225-881b-a59a-33c3eae044be@suse.de>
From:   Andy Shevchenko <andy.shevchenko@gmail.com>
Date:   Wed, 26 Jan 2022 12:02:36 +0200
Message-ID: <CAHp75Vc2cjHkJwNSiJ-HSWBG=DYy68uvD7QQzNdRp3mQxoY1nw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 0/4] fbtft: Unorphan the driver for maintenance
To:     Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@suse.de>
Cc:     Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
        Phillip Potter <phil@philpotter.co.uk>,
        Lee Jones <lee.jones@linaro.org>,
        Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@gmail.com>,
        Carlis <zhangxuezhi1@yulong.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-staging@lists.linux.dev, linux-fbdev@vger.kernel.org,
        dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org,
        Michael Hennerich <michael.hennerich@analog.com>,
        Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>, Andy Shevchenko <andy@kernel.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Precedence: bulk

On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 10:52 AM Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@suse.de> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> Am 25.01.22 um 21:21 schrieb Andy Shevchenko:
> > Since we got a maintainer for fbdev, I would like to
> > unorphan fbtft (with the idea of sending PRs to Helge)
> > and move it out of staging since there is no more clean
> > up work expected and no more drivers either.
> >
> > Thoughts?

Thanks for sharing yours, my answers below.

> But why? We already have DRM drivers for some of these devices.

No, we do not (only a few are available).

> Porting
> the others to DRM is such a better long-term plan.  OTOH, as no one has
> shown up and converted them, maybe they should be left dead or removed
> entirely.

As I mentioned above there are devices that nobody will take time to
port to a way too complex DRM subsystem. But the devices are cheap and
quite widespread in the embedded world. I'm in possession of 3 or 4
different models and only 1 is supported by tiny DRM.

On top of that the subtle fact people forgot about FBTFT is that it
does support parallel interface (yes, I know that it's not performant,
but one of the displays I have is with that type of interface).

P.S. For the record, I will personally NAK any attempts to remove that
driver from the kernel. And this is another point why it's better not
to be under the staging.

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko