Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756132AbZKJMFH (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:05:07 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752693AbZKJMFG (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:05:06 -0500 Received: from hawking.rebel.net.au ([203.20.69.83]:34414 "EHLO hawking.rebel.net.au" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751906AbZKJMFF (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:05:05 -0500 Message-ID: <4AF956F8.7090707@davidnewall.com> Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:35:12 +1030 From: David Newall User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090817) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Daniel Mack CC: Alan Cox , Clemens Ladisch , Greg Kroah-Hartman , Andrew Morton , Geert Uytterhoeven , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] vt: make the default cursor shape configurable References: <4AF7D439.4030305@ladisch.de> <20091109091044.GX29442@buzzloop.caiaq.de> <4AF7DDC1.4090006@ladisch.de> <20091109095316.6283fbd6@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> <4AF7FC64.6030904@ladisch.de> <20091109114600.4d91b90e@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> <20091109145056.GB14091@buzzloop.caiaq.de> <4AF8582B.2000403@davidnewall.com> <20091109220944.GH14091@buzzloop.caiaq.de> In-Reply-To: <20091109220944.GH14091@buzzloop.caiaq.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1785 Lines: 41 Daniel Mack wrote: > On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 04:28:03AM +1030, David Newall wrote: > >> Daniel Mack wrote: >> >>> And even if the cursor behaviour is changable at runtime, I don't see >>> why it shouldn't have a selectable compile time default. Which is what >>> the patch adds. >>> >> It seems like adding cruft to the kernel that is just as effectively >> available at run-time. Where does it end? Do we eventually add bash to >> the kernel? >> > > One more thing: > > Clemens' last patch didn't add anything to the kernel's binary size. > It didn't slow down anything either, as there is no run-time condition > evaluation. It just makes something configurable which was hard > coded before. So where's the cruft? > In this case the cruft is yet more kernel configuration choices to confuse and bewilder. The problems caused by cruft are more from its accretion than from any single part of it. Being able to argue that a crufty feature causes no change to speed or size misses that point. Everything should be in the kernel, except those things that don't need to be (with apologies to Enstein). I'm having trouble seeing a flashing cursor during device startup as a problem. I expect it will prove a useful diagnostic, one day. I think you can turn it off (from user space) within a couple of seconds of power on; you did say embedded, didn't you? Perhaps you even can configure your hardware to not display the cursor on startup, which is the second likeliest (after user-space) place to satisfy your needs. -- 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/