Re: [Gta04-owner] [PATCH 0/4] UART slave device support - version 4

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 23.01.2016 um 18:28 schrieb One Thousand Gnomes <gnomes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>>> There is lots of stuff we probe and bind via user space - most things
>>> these days in fact. That's much of why we have notifiers and udev. It's
>>> frequently a win in flexibility, security and configurability to do stuff
>>> via user daemons. We do it for example with all the volume management,
>>> raid and disk encryption.  
>> 
>> Because volumes are something users really want to configure. They
>> can change their hardware configuration every now and then. And
>> there are removable media to be considered.
> 
> Like USB bluetooth dongles, like systems with external SPI ports, or plug
> in SPI devices, or plug in gps devices on other interfaces ?
> 
>> In our UART cases the underlaying hardware can't be reconfigured. So
>> there is no need to load this burden of config to the user.
> 
> Plenty of uarts it can be or the BT can be muxed with other device
> endpoints.

Please give examples where the user can configure such a chip that is
soldered on the same PCB as the SoC.

> 
>> For BT or GPS I just want it to work the same on all devices (independently
>> on how the specific chip is connected). Kernel should unify such things.
>> Or it would not be a Un(iplexed)ix.
> 
> I think you are confusing Unix and Multics.

No, If I write Unix I mean Unix. The "Un" stands for "Uniplexed" which is
a pun of course. But it alludes to "Unification" giving the impression of
"Simplification".

> 
> Unix is nothing to do with Linux and Unix was about creating a beautiful
> system not by having a huge crap filled kernel,

and no crap filled user space.

> but by having only the
> minimum necessary in the kernel. Unix

I think you are confusing it with the goals of microkernels (e.g. Mach or Hurd).

> was not about what was put in but
> what was left out.

Exactly. It left out complexity. E.g. everything is a file. You can use devices
like files. Just open some /dev/tty and get GPS NMEA records...

> 
> "We used to sit around in the Unix Room saying, 'What can we throw out?
> Why is there this option?" - Doug McIlroy

Fine. Let's throw out the idea to configure power on/off a GPS or BT device
by user space daemons for hard wired chips.

> 
> GPS is a train wreck for commonality. Most GPS requires custom binary
> only user space code often obfuscated in order to meet the regulations
> governing GPS technology to stop third parties using it for missile
> guidance.

Most GPS receivers I came across are modules which spit out NMEA
records with serial 9600 bit/s. Either through RS232 or Bluetooth SPP. There
may be others, but I don't want to have all problems of the world solved
at once.

-- hns