linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v6] Add generic exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) function

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Date:	Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:38:39 +0100
From:	Stefan Richter <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de>
To:	Bruno Randolf <br1@...fach.org>
Cc:	KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	randy.dunlap@...cle.com, peterz@...radead.org, blp@...stanford.edu,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Lars_Ericsson@...ia.com,
	kevin.granade@...il.com,
	"John W. Linville" <linville@...driver.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v6] Add generic exponentially weighted moving average
 (EWMA) function

On Nov 15 Bruno Randolf wrote:
> On Sun November 14 2010 17:51:08 Stefan Richter wrote:
> > BTW, isn't "get" more usually used as a prefix for these kinds of
> > functions in kernel APIs?  "get" as a suffix more often means "get
> > a reference" alias increase reference count rather than "get the
> > value".
> 
> Umm. I don't know and honstly I don't care. I think the API ewma_* is 
> consistent. If you have a good reason to change it please let me
> know, otherwise i'd just leave it like it is now.

It is not about consistency of the API in itself but about consistency
with the rest of the kernel.  Cf. skb_get vs. get_unaligned and many
more.  I for one immediately think of "something is having its
reference count incremented here" when I come across a something_get
when reading code.

I don't know of such a convention being documented anywhere.  But for an
overkill of examples of "get" as prefix and suffix, grep for get_ and
_get( in include/.  The same convention exists IME with "put" that
either writes a value or drops a reference.

Sorry for bringing this up so late but it is IMO not a trivial point.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-==-=- =-== -====
http://arcgraph.de/sr/
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