Re: [PATCH v2 10/41] drm/modes: Add a function to generate analog display modes

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Mateusz,

On Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 3:44 AM Mateusz Kwiatkowski <kfyatek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Wow. That's an enormous amount of effort put into this patch.
>
> But I'm tempted to say that this is actually overengineered quite a bit :D
> Considering that there's no way to access all these calculations from user
> space, and I can't imagine anybody using anything else than those standard
> 480i/576i (and maybe 240p/288p) modes at 13.5 MHz any time soon... I'm not
> sure if we actually need all this.

We'll need it when we get an Amiga DRM driver, which will use
7/14/28 MHz pixel clocks.

> But anyway, I'm not the maintainer of this subsystem, so I'm not the one to
> decide.
>
> > +enum drm_mode_analog {
> > +    DRM_MODE_ANALOG_NTSC,
> > +    DRM_MODE_ANALOG_PAL,
> > +};
>
> Using "NTSC" and "PAL" to describe the 50Hz and 60Hz analog TV modes is common,
> but strictly speaking a misnomer. Those are color encoding systems, and your
> patchset fully supports lesser used, but standard encodings for those (e.g.
> PAL-M for 60Hz and SECAM for 50Hz). I'd propose switching to some more neutral
> naming scheme. Some ideas:
>
> - DRM_MODE_ANALOG_60_HZ / DRM_MODE_ANALOG_50_HZ (after standard refresh rate)
> - DRM_MODE_ANALOG_525_LINES / DRM_MODE_ANALOG_625_LINES (after standard line
>   count)

IMHO these are bad names, as e.g. VGA640x480@60 is also analog, using
60 Hz and 525 lines.  Add "TV" to the name?

> - DRM_MODE_ANALOG_JM / DRM_MODE_ANALOG_BDGHIKLN (after corresponding ITU System
>   Letter Designations)

Or DRM_MODE_ITU_*?
But given the long list of letters, this looks fragile to me.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds