Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 01 Sep 1999 14:48:49 -0400 | From | Jeff Garzik <> | Subject | Re: PATCH: Update for the serial driver. |
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"Theodore Y. Ts'o" wrote: > > Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 16:46:56 +0200 (MEST) > From: R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl (Rogier Wolff) > > Theodore, May I ask for a "name" field in your PCI-table? Then we can > say something like "Detected an xxxx card". That make supporting such > a card a lot easier: People get reassured that their card got > detected. > > The reason why I haven't done this is because I don't want to bloat the > kernel with overly large tables; if past history is any guide, I have no > doubt that the number of PCI serial boards will be *large*. > > If we are going to be doing this, we should use the same mechanism of > mapping vendor/device id's to (string) names that is used in > drivers/pci/oldproc.c. But some poeple have wanted to phase this out > entirely, although I think I remember a comment from Linus that he > thinks it might be good for that functionality to stay in the kernel.
Tables are wonderful. I use tables to abstract small differences between chipsets served by a single driver. Take a look at what is done in recent clgenfb drivers. Tables are compact, can be marked with __initdata to save memory, and make extensibility very easy.
In the case above, you can create a probe table marked with __initdata, to dump the chip names after you probe and print them out.
Jeff
-- Americans' greatest fear is that America will turn out to have been a phenomenon, not a civilization. -- Shirley Hazzard, "Transit of Venus"
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