Re: [RFC PATCH] slimbus: Linux driver framework for SLIMbus.

[Mark Brown <broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com>]

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 02:55:55PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Thursday 11 August 2011, Kenneth Heitke wrote:

> > +EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(slim_add_device);

> I don't think this should be exported: AFAICT, the set of slim_devices
> is a property of the platform, so I don't see how any other device driver
> would add another device.

The platform may be comprised of multiple hardwaare modules with
functionality on daughtercards which can be probed at runtime.  You may
also find someone constructing a PCI card or something with a slimbus
controller on it at some point.

> > +EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(slim_register_board_info);

> We are trying to gradually convert platforms that have hardcoded device
> lists and cannot probe devices by looking at the hardware over to using
> device tree files that list all the devices.

> I think that this would work well for slimbus and should be done
> right from the start. This means however that you should not
> register a "board_info" but instead change the slim_register_controller
> function so that it adds all devices listed as children of the
> controller in the device tree.

It seems a bit extreme to prevent anyone implementing a subsystem for
their platform until they've converted it into device tree.  Though with
slimbus it should be at least somewhat probeable IIRC?