Re: [PATCH v4 2/5] net: lan743x: read SFP straps from PCI11x1x device

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

> > In practice distributions turn on nearly everything. So the code is likely to be
> > built. Rather than a Kconfig symbol, can you move the code into a module,
> > which only gets loaded for pci11x1x?
> [Thangaraj Samynathan] Thanks for the suggestion. We agree this is a reasonable direction.
> For this series, CONFIG_LAN743X_SFP addresses the dependency concern.
> For distro builds that enable most options, a separate module would
> typically be built and loaded as well, so the practical result is the
> same.

Not necessarily. You have a strapping pin, which indicates if the
hardware has been designed for SFP. Use that to load the kernel module
with all the SFP code.

Maybe also go talk to Marketing. What has this device been designed
for and what applications is it marketed towards? You talk about Intel
drivers. They are used in servers and desktop machines. You generally
don't worry too much about code size for those targets, there is a lot
of RAM available. However, if the target market is deeply embedded,
RAM can be short. However, why would use pick an embedded SoC which
does not have integrated Ethernet?  Pretty much all embedded SoCs do.

Make the architecture fit the use case.

   Andrew