Re: [patch] MTD: fix DOC2000/2001/2001PLUS build error

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Tue Feb 06 2007 - 18:55:54 EST




On Tue, 6 Feb 2007, David Woodhouse wrote:
>
> Really, if our config is set up in sensible submenus (as in general it
> _is_), the "see everything" behaviour really isn't bad.

There are two fundamental problems with that statement:

- no, it really isn't always

Quite often, our Kconfig files have dependencies that are about where
the *code* exists, rather than about some nice hierarchical system.

Think of it this way: would you use a programming language that didn't
allow you anything but totally hierarcical language constructs? No sane
person would - because real life isn't hierarchical. Yes, there are
many things that are, but not all things are.

Example: many cryptographic algorithms are in crypto/. But then a lot
of them ARE NOT. They are in arch/so-and-so/crypto/ or similar. Notice?

NOT HIERARCHICAL.

- I don't use menus at all. I use the good old textual "make oldconfig".
Trust me, I _want_ those irrelevant questions gone. They aren't "grayed
out".

So you seem to have this *wish* that real life was different than it is.
But we aren't hierarchical, and even if we were, it *still* wouldn't work
the way you want things to work.

Linus "reality bites" Torvalds
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