Re: [MOUSE] Alias for /dev/psaux

[Linus Torvalds]

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003, Vojtech Pavlik wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 05, 2003 at 09:36:28AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:> 
> 
> > The alternative approach is to _not_ try to autodetect and leave it in a
> > sane default state - or at least leaving the detection to a minimum, but
> > having sane ways of letting the user set the thing.
> 
> Would sysfs be a sane enough way?

I suspect sysfs would be a _good_ way to do it. I'm sure it could be 
screwed up too, but I don't think it would necessarily be wrong to be able 
to do

	echo imps2 > /sys/class/input/mouse/1/protocol
	echo 200 > /sys/class/input/mouse/1/rate

or something similar.

> I still would prefer to have the autodetect be enabled, because it works
> for 99% of the cases and allow to set the mouse protocol manually
> (either boot time or via sysfs) for the troublesome cases.

I'm a big believer in having the "default behaviour" be as user-friendly 
as possible. I do not believe in the mantra "we should do as little as 
possible, and let the user set everything up".

> If psmouse.o is a module, the installer of course can ask the user. 

I think that's a failure. For one thing, you need the module to even _let_
the user select the mouse type: you can't seriously expect installers for
normal users to not run graphically and with a mouse already?

In general, module parameters are _always_ a sign of failure. I don't know
of a single one that can be considered a "good thing". They are sometimes
required, but they should be required only for hardware that is just very
fundamentally broken.

			Linus

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/