Scope and Using devices

[David Zeuthen]

On Fri, 2004-05-28 at 15:19 +0200, Owen Fraser-Green wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > Now, should we include stuff like this is the IPv4 address of the
> > networking device? Maybe, I'm not really sure, I tend to say no. Why?
> > Because if we do this, should we do the same for IPX (isn't this a
> > Novell protocol, btw?)? Or IPv6? 
> 
> I think the deciding factor here concerns the boundary between hardware
> and software. Seeing as the IP stack isn't a part of the hardware
> ethernet device, both getting and setting it's properties should just go
> altogether (or alternatively, rename HAL to HOSAL: Hardware and Other
> Stuff Abstraction Layer :)
> 

That's a good point. The IP stack is indeed in the realm software
configuration whereas selecting a wireless network is, more at least, in
the realm of hardware configuration. Hmm..

Btw, someone once suggested to me in a private email, an even better
name might me DeviceKit or something so as to indicate the departure
from the old UNIX roots. Or something :-)

[snip]

> the problem is though that every time an interface changed or a new one
> was added, I'd have to release a new version of hal-sharp since, for
> this convenient syntax to work in .NET, the Net.Ethernet.80211 has to be
> defined at compile time.
> 

One point is also that we have to freeze some of the interfaces in HAL
at some point so distributions can start shipping it and ISV can start
depending on them. We don't have to freeze everything at once, but...

> My instincts yesterday told me that after a while it would become
> apparent that more and more Set-type methods would be necessary but I
> have to admit that having given a little more thought I can't really
> think of too many. 
> 

Me too.

> Ok, it's weekend and I'm going home early. Perhaps I can come up with
> something more constructive after weekend :)
> 

Heh, yeah, I must admit I'm not quite sure myself so feedback is always
good.

Thanks,
David



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