On 26-Feb-2000 Terry Dawson wrote:
> Much of the Linux AX.25/NetRom/Rose functionality belongs in the kernel
> at the heart of the operating system.
Is that actually true? I know that it is generally received wisdom, but if
the device drivers handled the level 1 issues (including txd, txtail etc) and
stopped there, would it _actually_ be necessary to have the rest in the
kernel.
It seems to me that the only reason that ax25 is there is largely because
some people want seamless IP integration. Which is a point of view, but not
necessarily one I would wholeheartedly agree with.
I suppose my main beef with kernel integration is that it makes it very
difficult if you want to do something which starts to move away from ax25 in a
controlled fashion, either for experimentation or simply because you want to
find a better way.
My other beef is that it not, currently, as well integrated as all that
(although 2.2.x is a noticable improvement over 2.0.x).
I, personally, believe that the kernel should handle level 1 issues and
everything else should be done in user space a la BPQ or Flexnet. This gives
far more flexibility and would allow (and is likely to encourage) more
people to fiddle and therefore, maybe, contribute.
Dirk G1TLH
--
Dirk-Jan Koopman, Tobit Computer Co Ltd
At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find
at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
