Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760606AbXENUe3 (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 May 2007 16:34:29 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1758153AbXENUeF (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 May 2007 16:34:05 -0400 Received: from mailer.gwdg.de ([134.76.10.26]:50781 "EHLO mailer.gwdg.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757310AbXENUeC (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 May 2007 16:34:02 -0400 Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 22:33:44 +0200 (MEST) From: Jan Engelhardt To: Tilman Schmidt cc: LKML Subject: Re: Linux 2.6.22-rc1 In-Reply-To: <4648A3DF.7040004@imap.cc> Message-ID: References: <4647569D.7010709@imap.cc> <4648A3DF.7040004@imap.cc> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Report: Content analysis: 0.0 points, 6.0 required _SUMMARY_ Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2365 Lines: 65 On May 14 2007 20:01, Tilman Schmidt wrote: >> >> "Patches welcome" ;-) > >Sure. Just tell me exactly what those options are intended to do >and I'll happily write up a patch adding help texts trying to >express that in bad English. :-) They are just a menu that can be switched on or off. It is for those people that start with an arbitrary .config and work their way through menuconfig to disable all the parts they do not want. So, point no. 1: * Disabling this menu disables all the fluff inside it, without needing to enter the menu and disable each option one by one (as was the case previously) Then of course, one can also turn these menuconfig on (apparently!) to be able to descend into them and select some drivers they like. Point no. 2: * Since Jens Axboe's stance ["default y idiocy"] is to have these menus disabled by default, people should most likely enable them first before they will be able to enter them. (I would have wanted them to be always 'y' - it does not affect the build, just opens all menus by default) >Seriously, it might be a tad more efficient if the help texts were >written by those who invented the options in the first place. menuconfig NETDEV_10000 bool "Ethernet (10GbE)" ---help-- Say Y here to actually be able to go into this menu and select some drivers that we think belong to the "10 Gigabit Ethernet" family. If unsure, it is unwise to say N! See, this looks so fundamentally basic to me that I find it almost funny. YMMV, hence I asked for suggestions from other people. >> As for NETDEV_1000 and _10000, I really wonder if we need anymore >> help text than the option. I do not know what the minimum level >> of user knowledge is that kconfig help texts need to support, >> but maybe you can tell? > >For a start, it shouldn't require users to grep through Kconfigs >and Makefiles in order to find out what effects an option has. menuconfigs are some special kind in that they combine an option with a menu. Perhaps now that some ->menuconfig patches have gone in, more people will get to know these constructs. Jan -- - 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/