Re: xconfig lossage: summary and suggestions (long)

Regis Duchesne (regis@via.ecp.fr)
Wed, 18 Feb 1998 08:59:45 +0100 (CET)


JM wrote:
> My point is
> simple: there is NO need to bring all current [Cc]onfig.in files into strict
> complience with spec, only to then rip them all down anyway. We just need
> to write our libary to be liberal in what it accepts.
Believe me, it is hard to write such a flexible library. Look for example
at this chunk of drivers/scsi/Config.in in 2.1.87:

if [ "`whoami`" = "eric" ]; then
dep_tristate 'SCSI debugging host adapter' CONFIG_SCSI_DEBUG $CONFIG_SCSI
fi

For me, this is a pure syntax breakage, and it is far easier to fix it
than to make the library accept it.

> 1) Write a generic parsing service for [Cc]onfig.in files, and one frontend
> for it (the simple "make config"/"make oldconfig").
The parsing part of my library is 80% done. I think I will release it as
soon as it becomes more stable. I will provide you with a little
demonstration proof-of-concept program (my current test program).

Given that, I think it would take us about 1 or 2 days to write config.

> 2) Test.
> 3) Write xcnofig.
> 4) Test.
> 5) Write menuconfig?
Yes

> 6) Test? (I'm not certian if menuconfig is currently very useful. If you
> want a console-based config, run config. If you want menus, use X.)
> 7) Debate on the new .cfg format.
> 8) Finalise
> 9) Add support for it to the backend.
> 10) Start re-writing the [Cc]onfig.in files into foo.cfg files.
My test program proves that this can be done automatically.

> 11) Once all of the files are changed, remove support for the old format
> from the libary.
> 12) Fix bugs for the rest of our misirable existances.
Agreed.

Cheers,

Regis "HPReg" Duchesne - Engineering Student at ***** ******** *****
www http://www.via.ecp.fr/~regis/
(O o) I use Linux & 3Com (1135 KB/s over 10Mb/s ethernet)
--.oOO--(_)--OOo.-----------------------------------------------------------

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu