| A Mennucc 2005-03-04, 5:58 pm |
| sorry, wrong posting
(I must switch to a better news reader!)
a.
A Mennucc wrote:
> Justin Pryzby wrote:
>
> (I just gave a brief look; I put them in
> http://tonelli.sns.it/mirror/X/xc/p...e86/drivers/nv/
> )
>
> I agree; or he simply fishes them out of documentation, and
> he does not see the need to use #defines,
> since he has the documentation in its hand.
>
> Please compare :
>
> vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
> /*
> * Initialize DAC palette.
> */
> if(pLayout->bitsPerPixel != 8 )
> {
> for (i = 0; i < 256; i++)
> {
> pVga->DAC[i*3] = i;
> pVga->DAC[(i*3)+1] = i;
> pVga->DAC[(i*3)+2] = i;
> }
> }
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> that comes from nv_dac.c , or
>
> vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
v
> case 'h': /* SETHI */
> /* Has to be sethi i, xx */
> if ((insn & 0xc1c00000) !=
> 0x01000000) {
> prom_printf(insn_h, p,
> addr, insn);
> prom_halt();
> }
> set_addr(addr, q[1], fmangled,
> (insn & 0xffc00000) | (p[1] >> 10));
> break;
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^
> that comes from kernel-source..../arch/sparc/mm/btfixup.c
>
> I dont see any of the two to be quite more comprehensible than the other.
>
> On the other hand, neither the GPL nor the DFSG state that any laymen
> (such as me) should be able to understand
> the deep meaning of the above code.
>
> how will we ever be able to know this? How do we go and prove that
> they are keeping a secret version of the code that is better than what
> they are relasing?
>
> Anyhow, there are comments in the NV code ... this is more
> than can be said of a lot of Open Source code around :-)
>
> http://tonelli.sns.it/mirror/X/xc/p...e86/drivers/nv/
>
>
> -------------
>
> Actually , the whole linux kernel may be subject to the same
> complaints that Ben Johnson reports against nv drivers !
>
> - there are many occurrences of hexadecimals with no explanation or
> comments.
> Just try find -name '*.c' | xargs egrep -5 '0x[1-9]' | less -S
>
> Look at how much code in kernel uses magic hexadecimals with almost
> no comments:
> do we go and delete the whole kernel for this reason? :-)
>
> - defines are no help either: I have no clue at what this line
>
> arch/ppc/kernel/align.c:#define RA(inst) (((inst) &
> 0x001F0000) >> 16)
>
> is supposed to be defining.
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> a.
>
>
>
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