Re: [PATCH 1/5 v1] LoongArch: bfd: Add new reloc types.

[WANG Xuerui <i.swmail@xen0n.name>]

On 2022/7/20 10:07, liuzhensong wrote:
>
> Some relocation name changes make sense. But, how to name a name is a 
> matter of personal aesthetics, and it is difficult to satisfy 
> everyone. Does the name of the relocation matter? should we pay more 
> attention to the specific implementation?  Remove useless and add needed?
>
Names do matter. You can't expect to lower maintenance costs and barrier 
to entry for newcomers with "bad" names. I showed the original names in 
the patch to some of my colleagues (with no low-level programming 
experience; they are all application developers), and they invariably 
can't get the distinction of "LO12/HI20/LO20/HI12". I then showed them 
my proposal, granted they needed a little explanation as to what things 
like "SK12" mean, but after that they can immediately get the feel of 
the relocs ("ah, it's like for this purpose, put this part of imm into 
this slot").

LoongArch is expected to remain niche, at least for the coming 3~5 
years, so you can't expect to have many people working on low-level 
nitty-gritty details like this. I personally don't think your team's 
composition is going to remain stable over the years, either; in either 
case, people come and go, so IMO there is indeed value in this 
bikeshedding. The community as a whole can work over concrete proposals 
of better naming, and I think my proposal serves as such a constructive 
starting point.

Also, if you think the current names are more appropriate, with 
objective reasons, then *please communicate* your justification and 
thought behind them. We "outsiders" actually intend to cooperate, and 
have voiced our thoughts, but we don't know what you and your team 
think. For now all we have is this "LO12/HI20/LO20/HI12" and outsiders 
can draw no conclusion other than "hmm this is going to cause 
confusion". We really need to communicate more in the open for pushing 
things forward, constructively.