From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Lennert Buytenhek Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add new cs89x0 driver Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:53:28 +0200 Message-ID: <20090422225328.GA14729@mail.wantstofly.org> References: <1240387172-21818-1-git-send-email-s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, Lennert Buytenhek , Ivo Clarysse , Gilles Chanteperdrix To: Sascha Hauer Return-path: Received: from xi.wantstofly.org ([80.101.37.227]:41434 "EHLO mail.wantstofly.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753162AbZDVWwg (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:52:36 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1240387172-21818-1-git-send-email-s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 09:59:30AM +0200, Sascha Hauer wrote: > While this is a very old chip it is still in use on some embedded > boards. I see myself unable to fix the in Kernel driver to bring > it to driver model support, so this patch adds a new driver designed > to replace the old one, at least for non-ISA hardware. I had the same thought initially when I started working on mv643xx_eth, but I decided to try and beat the existing driver into shape anyway. The mv643xx_eth driver now is not too different from how I would have written it had I rewritten it from scratch, and refactoring it took about a hundred commits and probably a bunch more effort than just rewriting it would have taken, but in the end I probably _saved_ myself time by being able to (have users) bisect problems instead of having to spend time trying to figure out why driver A works but B doesn't or vice versa, not having to chase people to switch their platforms over to the new driver, etc. (I'm not saying that there's absolutely no other way for you to go than to do the same thing -- it's just a thought.)