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SubjectRe: [PATCH] console - Add configurable support for console charset translation
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On Wednesday 04 June 2008 05:33:53 Adrian Bunk wrote:
> Does the linux-tiny approach of adding a kconfig variable for each 5kB
> of code actually make sense? I'm asking since an exploding amount of
> kconfig variables and their interdependencies have a not so small
> maintainance impact in the long term.

Complexity is a cost, you have to get good bang for the buck when you spend
it.

> And I'm wondering whether it's the best approach for reaching
> measurable results.

When I first started stripping down systems to make embedded masquerading
routers back in the late 90's (before linksys came out), I started with a Red
Hat install and removed lots and lots of packages. That's the approach we're
taking today, and I can say from experience that it's not sustainable.

I then wandered to a Linux From Scratch approach, building a system that had
nothing in it but what I wanted. Starting from zero and adding stuff, rather
than starting from Mt. Crapmore and removing things until the shovel broke.

Someday I want to do the same for the Linux kernel. When I started building
systems instead of carving them out of blocks of distro, I started with
a "hello world" root filesystem, and I want to make a "hello world" kernel.
Start with just the boot code that does the jump to C code, only instead of
start_kernel() in init/main.c have it call a hello_world() function that
prints "hello world" to the console using the early_printk logic, then calls
HLT. And does _nothing_else_. Then add stuff back one chunk at a time,
sstarting with memory management, then the scheduler and process stuff, then
the vfs, and so on. So I know what all the bits do, and how big and
complicated they are. And I can document the lot of it as I go.

Unfortunately, as a learning experience, I estimate this would take me about a
year. And I haven't got a spare year on me at the moment. But it remains
prominently on my todo list, if I decide to start another major project.
(Maybe after I get a 1.0 release of FWL out.)

> My gut feeling is that the influence of this kind of linux-tiny patches
> is hardly noticably compared to the overall code size development, but
> if you have numbers that prove me wrong just point me to them and I'll
> stand corrected.

The whackamole approach is never going to turn Ubuntu into Damn Small Linux,
and it ignores the needs of the people who don't want the /proc hairball but
_do_ want a ps that works.

Rob
--
"One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code."
- Ken Thompson.


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