Re: [GIT PULL] Memory folios for v5.15

From: Matthew Wilcox
Date: Tue Aug 24 2021 - 15:24:09 EST


On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 12:11:49PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 12:02 PM Matthew Wilcox <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Choosing short words at random from /usr/share/dict/words:
>
> I don't think you're getting my point.
>
> In fact, you're just making it WORSE.
>
> "short" and "greppable" is not the main issue here.
>
> "understandable" and "follows other conventions" is.
>
> And those "other conventions" are not "book binders in the 17th
> century". They are about operating system design.
>
> So when you mention "slab" as a name example, that's not the argument
> you think it is. That's a real honest-to-goodness operating system
> convention name that doesn't exactly predate Linux, but is most
> certainly not new.

Sure, but at the time Jeff Bonwick chose it, it had no meaning in
computer science or operating system design. Whatever name is chosen,
we'll get used to it. I don't even care what name it is.

I want "short" because it ends up used everywhere. I don't want to
be typing
lock_hippopotamus(hippopotamus);

and I want greppable so it's not confused with something somebody else
has already used as an identifier.