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

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Date:	Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:11:55 +0000
From:	David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@...cle.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [patch] MTD: fix DOC2000/2001/2001PLUS build error

On Tue, 2007-02-06 at 14:53 -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> I don't think you've ever showed any such example.
> 
> And if you did, it would all boil down to *exactly* what 'select' does: 
> config options that get set automatically based on other choices.

That's one option which I don't think I've seen implemented.

The other possibility which comes to mind, and which I _have_ seen
implemented, is not to hide the disabled option but to _show_ it, and
represent its dependencies right there next to it somehow. 

Where I saw this done was actually in the Nemesis kernel configuration,
which was based on our old tcl xconfig tool. It actually worked quite
well. It's a _long_ time ago now, but IIRC it was in a cell below the
disabled option. It'd look something like (remember hte old xconfig?):

------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  USB Mass storage support                      |  o Y   o M   ✓ N    |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  depends on:  o SCSI   ✓ USB                                         |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure I had a screenshot of it once. But it doesn't matter; you get
the idea -- our current tools would do it differently anyway. But they
_could_ do it.

> So care to give a real example? Start with USB automatically selecting 
> SCSI support without the user having to even know it uses SCSI. Tell me 
> how it's supposed to work sanely without 'select'.

Well one option, as you suggest, is just that if you go into the
graphical tool and enable USB_STORAGE, you get SCSI turned on
automatically. That's simple enough and the xconfig tool can do it quite
easily. It just needs to _show_ you the option, which isn't particularly
hard. But what I care about is that when you when you explicitly set
 # CONFIG_SCSI is not set
and run 'make oldconfig' it doesn't get turned back on again.

But as I said, I'm not entirely averse to having to do 'make
oldconfig-noselect' or something like that to preserve the old
behaviour. And then you can sprinkle 'select' wherever you like without
bothering those of us who object.

-- 
dwmw2

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