From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 9724 invoked by alias); 18 Nov 2008 17:16:17 -0000 Received: (qmail 9698 invoked by uid 22791); 18 Nov 2008 17:16:15 -0000 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.2 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SPF_PASS X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from hagrid.ecoscentric.com (HELO mail.ecoscentric.com) (212.13.207.197) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:15:25 +0000 Received: from localhost (hagrid.ecoscentric.com [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ecoscentric.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED3D23B40071; Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:15:22 +0000 (GMT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ecoscentric.com Received: from mail.ecoscentric.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (hagrid.ecoscentric.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id pn8W0mB1Pxm7; Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:15:22 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <4922F829.3070507@eCosCentric.com> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:16:00 -0000 From: Jonathan Larmour User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 (X11/20070530) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Bart Veer CC: munz@speag.ch, ecos-devel@sourceware.org Subject: Re: What is the reason to... References: <4910602A.3090408@speag.ch> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.4.0 OpenPGP: id=A5FB74E6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mailing-List: contact ecos-devel-help@ecos.sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: ecos-devel-owner@ecos.sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2008-11/txt/msg00028.txt.bz2 Bart Veer wrote: >>>>>> "Oliver" == oliver munz @ s p e a g writes: > > Oliver> mark CYGPKG_IO_SPI as HARDWARE? > Oliver> I think Generic SPI or I2C and so one should be loadable > Oliver> whitout an template. Can we change this? > > The problem here is that other drivers such as the wallclock or > dataflash are likely to depend on the SPI/I2C bus being available. On > some platforms there may even be platform HAL dependencies on the bus. > Now, by convention you can enable flash support on a given platform > simply by e.g. "ecosconfig add flash" and everything sorts itself out. > If the SPI or I2C bus driver was not automatically part of the > configuration then that would stop working. > > If you want the SPI or I2C support to be automatically available when > needed, working within the limitations of current CDL, then the > generic SPI or I2C packages have to be part of the target definition > in ecos.db. That means they have to be hardware packages. I've said this before and will just take the opportunity to say it again: the 'hardware' attribute just gets in the way. You can't have packages in the target definition that aren't 'hardware', and you can't add packages which are marked as 'hardware', so there is a wholly artificial division between packages. I would prefer the whole 'hardware' attribute was dropped and give platform developers, and application developers the ability to control their own hardware configuration without having to edit repository files. It should be possible for the HAL developers to list any driver packages appropriate for their hardware in the target definition; and possible for app developers to add/remove from that as needed. There's always been plug-in modules, expansion buses etc., nevermind modern configurable hardware, so assuming hardware is static seems archaic. I suspect it has cost people more wasted time and confusion than it has ever saved. I've had to jump through these hoops, and not seen any benefit. Jifl -- eCosCentric Limited http://www.eCosCentric.com/ The eCos experts Barnwell House, Barnwell Drive, Cambridge, UK. Tel: +44 1223 245571 Registered in England and Wales: Reg No 4422071. ------["Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere"]------ Opinions==mine