Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 15:08:07 -0500 From: Christopher Masto <chris@netmonger.net> To: Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>, Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com> Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: HEADSUP: wd driver will be retired! Message-ID: <19991208150807.A16687@netmonger.net> In-Reply-To: <199912081856.KAA06231@mass.cdrom.com>; from Mike Smith on Wed, Dec 08, 1999 at 10:56:24AM -0800 References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912080939150.23236-100000@current1.whistle.com> <199912081856.KAA06231@mass.cdrom.com>
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On Wed, Dec 08, 1999 at 10:56:24AM -0800, Mike Smith wrote: > > You shouldn't remove a function until it has been properly replaced. > > A very simple concept some people seem to have trouble grasping. > > Actually, that's not at all correct. We've demonstrated a number of > times now that you reach a point where a brutal cutover is required. > Failure to do so leaves people clutching the old security blanket for > years, and massively impedes further development. Unfortunately, FreeBSD has far too many examples of a working system being replaced with a less functional system. Just off the top of my head, there were the SCSI drivers lost to CAM, the PCCARD system, sound drivers, and now ATA. All of those things needed to be redesigned, but I think it's unfortunate and dangerous to public perception when version X has less hardware support than version X-1. Right now, I have no sound (not detected), no USB (panic on removal), can't use my sio pccard, can't eject my ed pccard, my IDE drives are taking hours to dump and fsck, and my TV card is missing every other line if I try to use the (not working anyway) closed caption decoder. Now, I running -current on this machine, I've asked for problems, and I have them. I try to fix them and/or send decent bug reports when I can, and I don't piss and moan when something breaks, because it's -current. I just get a feeling sometimes like we're moving forward on a treadmill that's moving backward just slightly faster. My opinion is that the right approach is to change the defaults sooner, but remove the old code later. In other words, -current's GENERIC should have been using new-ATA as soon as it was working, but we shouldn't remove the wd driver entirely until all of its functionality is available in its replacement. Of course, in reality, APIs change and old code isn't always worth the effort of porting, so sometimes you just have to let go. -- Christopher Masto Senior Network Monkey NetMonger Communications chris@netmonger.net info@netmonger.net http://www.netmonger.net Free yourself, free your machine, free the daemon -- http://www.freebsd.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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