Re: linux-next: manual merge of the arm-soc tree with the i2c-embeddedtree

From: Lee Jones
Date: Mon Jul 16 2012 - 07:31:32 EST


On 16/07/12 11:17, Wolfram Sang wrote:

Well I think I ACKed that from the point of view that it will work as
expected with ux500 with these bindings. What is best from the I2C
subsystem point of view is another question ...

Okay, thanks for clarifying.

Overall I think we have this general problem with a lot of DT
conversion happening right now: the tempo is set very high and
all chip vendors want DT support RealQuickNowPreferrablyYesterday
and that makes it hard for subsystem maintainers to hold back,
and I also fear vendor-specific properties are overused for this
reason.

Word.

And about the perpetual nature of device tree bindings it
appears to me that the modus operandi right now is to not
regard any of these as written in stone until they are removed
from the kernel tree. We have plenty of drivers patching
trees and drivers in one for the moment.

I don't get this one. Yes, they are of perpetual nature, so how could we
remove them from the kernel tree?

What I am afraid of is: tentative solutions tend to stay, because the
need for a proper solution is reduced. Yet, finding proper generic
bindings might take some time which doesn't meet the high pressure
around DT at the moment.

I agree with what you say to some extent, but I believe that it is more important to have a working solution now than to ensure that each bindings are as unique as possible. After any suggestion of consolidation, a move from vendor specific to generically defined Device Tree bindings is trivial. Especially in the current stage where adaptions and definitions are still fluid.

Obviously some care is taken to ensure the bindings are as generic as possible, but not to the extent that will put the project back some months. Over past few months I have enabled many sub-systems; however, I think it would have been a fraction of that if we'd gone through the laborious process of immediate forced consolidation. I think it's fine to have platform/vendor specific bindings that work, then come back to unify them once the dust settles.

If you know of any bindings which you know are generic, I'm happy to define and swap them out for the ones I've proposed, but due to a change of project focus I can't afford to spend hours studying all of the drivers to match-up possible unifications.

Kind regards,
Lee

--
Lee Jones
Linaro ST-Ericsson Landing Team Lead
M: +44 77 88 633 515
Linaro.org â Open source software for ARM SoCs
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