Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S966036AbXHaSHN (ORCPT ); Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:07:13 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965651AbXHaSHB (ORCPT ); Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:07:01 -0400 Received: from srv5.dvmed.net ([207.36.208.214]:55541 "EHLO mail.dvmed.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965647AbXHaSG7 (ORCPT ); Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:06:59 -0400 Message-ID: <46D858A9.4080506@garzik.org> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:06:33 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 (X11/20070719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Robert P. J. Day" CC: Randy Dunlap , Simon Arlott , sam@ravnborg.org, Linux Kernel Mailing List , Stefan Richter , Adrian Bunk , Gabriel C , netdev@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] net/, drivers/net/ , missing EXPERIMENTAL in menus References: <469E75AA.7040109@pimpmylinux.org> <20070718134012.cde2f956.randy.dunlap@oracle.com> <469E7BE1.6090401@garzik.org> <20070718210903.GM3801@stusta.de> <20070719054742.GN3801@stusta.de> <469F240E.9040205@s5r6.in-berlin.de> <20070719083109.13b2ab56.rdunlap@xenotime.net> <469FE045.3070403@simon.arlott.org.uk> <20070831102527.09fb42c0.rdunlap@xenotime.net> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: -4.3 (----) X-Spam-Report: SpamAssassin version 3.1.9 on srv5.dvmed.net summary: Content analysis details: (-4.3 points, 5.0 required) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2340 Lines: 51 Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On Fri, 31 Aug 2007, Randy Dunlap wrote: > >> On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:05:57 +0100 Simon Arlott wrote: >> >>> On 19/07/07 17:19, Robert P. J. Day wrote: >>>> On Thu, 19 Jul 2007, Randy Dunlap wrote: >>>>> I think that Stefan means a patch to the kconfig source code, >>>>> not the the Kconfig files. Good luck. I'd still like to see it. >>>> yes, i understand what he wanted now. as a first step (that >>>> theoretically shouldn't change any behaviour), i'd patch the Kconfig >>>> structure to add a new attribute ("maturity") which would be allowed >>>> to be set to *exactly one* of a pre-defined set of values (say, >>>> OBSOLETE, DEPRECATED, EXPERIMENTAL, and STILLBLEEDING). and that's >>>> it, nothing more. >>>> >>>> don't try to do anything with any of that just yet, just add the >>>> infrastructure to support the (optional) association of a maturity >>>> level with a config option. that's step one. >>> What about something like this? I'm not sure if the addition to sym_init >>> is desirable... I also had to prefix _ to the name for now otherwise it >>> conflicts badly with the current symbols. It probably should stop >>> "depends on _BROKEN" etc. too. > > i'm sure i'm going to get shouted down here, but i really disagree > with "BROKEN" being considered a "maturity level". IMHO, things like > EXPERIMENTAL, DEPRECATED and OBSOLETE represent maturity levels, for > what i think are obvious reasons. > > something like BROKEN, though, has *nothing* to do with maturity. a > feature can be any of those maturity levels, and simultaneously be > BROKEN. i consider BROKEN to be what i call a "status", and different > status levels might be the default of normal, or KIND_OF_FLAKY or > TOTALLY_BORKED -- that's where BROKEN would fit in. BROKEN is definitely a maturity level. A more accurate description would be BITROTTING perhaps. The code in question has passed through bleeding -> experimental -> stable, and come out the other side. In contrast, OBSOLETE and DEPRECATED reflect high-level status not code quality/maturity. Jeff - 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/