Re: [PATCH] mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible

Re: [PATCH] mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible

[Brian Norris]

+ LKML

On Wed, Oct 02, 2013 at 06:42:29PM +0200, Alexander Sverdlin wrote:
> mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible
> 
> phram was 32-bit limited by design. Machines are growing up, but phram
> module is still useful. Update it. The patch is bigger than minimum,
> because simple_strtoul() is obsolete.
> 
> Tested on MIPS64 and compile-tested for PPC (32 bit).
> 
> Signed-off-by: Alexander Sverdlin <alexander.sverdlin@nsn.com>

Pushed to l2-mtd.git. Thanks!

Can this driver use the library memparse() function instead of
open-coding it?

[To answer myself:] I noticed this in drivers/mtd/devices/phram.c, which
prevents us from using memparse():

  /* By dwmw2 editorial decree, "ki", "Mi" or "Gi" are to be used. */

Are we (MTD) holding a revolutionary position against the standard
kernel libraries, which recognize [KkMmGg] prefixes, but not [kMG]i
prefixes? Should we extend memparse() to accept either form? Or would
doing so simply pollute the library and not really satisfy anyone?

[After more research:] It looks like this topic may be the subject of
some long-past flame wars. If I am digging up past demons, then I'd
prefer to let sleeping Balrogs lie.

Brian

Re: [PATCH] mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible

[Jörn Engel]

On Mon, 7 October 2013 10:49:43 -0700, Brian Norris wrote:
> 
> [After more research:] It looks like this topic may be the subject of
> some long-past flame wars. If I am digging up past demons, then I'd
> prefer to let sleeping Balrogs lie.

Most of the time it is obvious from context whether you want base-1000
or base-1024 numbers.  So in the common case the extra letter is plain
annoying.  In less common cases it matters a lot and lack of the extra
letter is rather irritating.

One possible solution would be to have three suffixes.  Ki for
base-1024, Kd for base-1000 and K for "I don't care, you decide for
me".  But I am sure that would simply cause another round of
flamewars.

It is not a hard technical problem.  As a result, noone on this list
has the required expertise to solve it.

Jörn

--
Money can buy bandwidth, but latency is forever.
-- John R. Mashey

Re: [PATCH] mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 6:53 PM, Jörn Engel <joern@logfs.org> wrote:
> One possible solution would be to have three suffixes.  Ki for
> base-1024, Kd for base-1000 and K for "I don't care, you decide for
> me".  But I am sure that would simply cause another round of
> flamewars.

Indeed. Why deviate from SI with "Kd" (a new invention)??
That should just be "k".

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds

Re: [PATCH] mtd: phram: Make phram 64-bit compatible

[Alexander Sverdlin]

Hi!

On 10/07/2013 07:49 PM, ext Brian Norris wrote:
> Are we (MTD) holding a revolutionary position against the standard
> kernel libraries, which recognize [KkMmGg] prefixes, but not [kMG]i
> prefixes? Should we extend memparse() to accept either form? Or would
> doing so simply pollute the library and not really satisfy anyone?

I was also irritated re-inventing the wheel here, but the problem is --
millions of people out there have their startup scripts and uboot environments
for phram, who expect this just to work with the next kernel upgrade...

-- 
Best regards,
Alexander Sverdlin.