Re: [POLITICAL] Re: ECS k7s5a audio sound SiS 735 - 7012

[Gérard Roudier]

On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Ben Greear wrote:

> Gérard Roudier wrote:
>
> >
> > On Sun, 4 Nov 2001, Manfred Spraul wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Jeff Garzik wrote:
> >>
> >>>Gérard Roudier wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>different from Tekram adapters. Btw, my Netgear FA311 board is not handled
> >>>>by the sis driver of linux-2.2.20 and my little finger tells me that it
> >>>>could be so given a few code addition.
> >>>>
> >>>Unless you have a really strange board I haven't seen, NetGear FA311 are
> >>>the natsemi DP83815/6 chips, handling by either "natsemi" or "fa311"
> >>>drivers, not "sis900" driver...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>sis900 and natsemi are similar, probably both could be handled with one
> >>driver.
> >>e.g. freebsd has one driver for natsemi and sis900.
> >>
> >>But I'm not a big fan of huge drivers that handle multiple 99%
> >>compatible controllers and always break for one controller if you try to
> >>fix another controller, so I won't try to merge them.
> >>
> >
> > So you would have preferred, for example, to have dozens of different
> > drivers for SYM53C8XX chips and probably as many for Adaptec aic7xxx ones.
> > And, probably, one set of different drivers per O/S. And why not one set
> > per O/S major version and even per adjacent ones of the same O/S.
> >
> > Given all the different brands that use similar or compatibles chips, the
> > way you want drivers to be developped and maintained looks just
> > unrealistic to me.
>
>
> Jeff has intimate knowledge of the Tulip driver, one of the more complex
> drivers that supports a bazillion different cards.  And also one of the hardest
> to get (and keep) working on all of the devices it seems....
>
> I think he has a very valid point....

Ok. I do understand the point, now.
Sorry for the misunderstanding. I caught the remark as a too general
statement.

May thanks for the efforts maintaining tulip drivers.

Regards,
  Gérard.