[Nouveau] making 0.0.16 into 1.0.0

[Younes Manton]

On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Dave Airlie <airlied at gmail.com> wrote:
> So with all this ongoing Linus crap I'm going to be brave and ask for
> reasons why
> 0.0.16 kernel API can't become 1.0.0.
>
> Pros:
> All old userspace compatibility is gone.
> No more UMS cruft to support.
> Something can be shipped on distros at last, people get to use the driver.
> 3D drivers exist and use the interface, there is an investment in these already.
>
> Reasons against: (I'm making these up, feel free ack/nack/flesh
> out/add more etc).
> We haven't finished 3D drivers yet so the interface may still need changes?
> TTM sucks?
> Userspace command-submission for ever?
> I don't like versioning anything ever?
>
> So my current answers to my list of cons is:
>
> Adding new faster interfaces for 3D drivers shouldn't be a major problem, if its
> just a matter of making the current APIs saner.
>
> If you are going to write a UCS/non-TTM driver you are going to have to do
> major changes all over the stack, in theory a kernel CONFIG option to enable
> version 2 of the interface and drop version 1 would be an option at that time.
> Or even a boot option to select between which one you want. I would
> forsee a UCS/non-TTM driver needing to rewrite quite a lot of userspace,
> in fact probably all of it. I haven't seen anyone actually start or
> commit to working
> on such a beast, and I'd reckon its probably a 1-2 year job, GEM took over a
> year and it was arguably simpler. I'm not seeing the point of sitting
> in a holding
> pattern for that length of time just in case its better. The future is
> always going
> to be better.
>
> As for the I don't like versioning argument, well that really doesn't
> need addressing,
> you have to do version stuff to ship it, if the project as a whole
> decides they don't
> see a need to ever ship the code, then so be it.
>
> Dave.

Whatever the decision is I suggest it not be made too hastily because
of a Linus rant. We already know roughly where that leads. :)