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s/driver/documentation/

s/driver/documentation/

Posted Jul 5, 2010 20:23 UTC (Mon) by airlied (subscriber, #9104)
In reply to: s/driver/documentation/ by avik
Parent article: A line in the sand for graphics drivers

avik, I don't think you understand how complex these interfaces are.

Its not something you can assess in abstract form, i.e. until you've written a complete graphics driver, both kernel and userspace components you rarely know if the API you chose is going to be correct and performant. However you generally pick the 80% interface, go with that, and hope you can easily make the 100% interface on top of it later.

However unless a single group is developing the kernel and userspace drivers, generally that API is going to be useless and really constrain any one else. So we end up with a driver in the kernel providing an API that only a closed source userspace can exercise and an API that only a open source userspace can exercise, why should we introduce the first API at all.

I don't mind introducing reduced functionality kernel drivers that don't expose major userspace APIs to just serve as an example of how these GPUs work, I don't want a driver with an API commitment and no way for anyone to make sure the API continue working.


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