On Wednesday 09 February 2005 11:01 am, Nishanth Aravamudan wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 09, 2005 at 10:33:02AM -0800, David Brownell wrote:
> > On Tuesday 08 February 2005 10:05 pm, Nishanth Aravamudan wrote:
> > > -         USB_REQ_CLEAR_FEATURE, USB_RT_HUB, feature, 0, NULL, 0, HZ);
> > > +         USB_REQ_CLEAR_FEATURE, USB_RT_HUB, feature, 0, NULL, 0, 1000);
> > 
> > You know, changing from symbols to magic numbers is not a win.
> > People know what something involving HZ is intended to mean,
> > but 1000 is just another magic number ...
> 
> To be honest, I had a similar concern. But if the API is clear that the
> timeout parameter is in real time units (milliseconds, in this case), I
> do not think 1000 is as much of a "magic number" as HZ was, or
> minimally, it's the same. 

You mean you can actually tell, from looking at a large set of
function parameters, which ones indicate timeouts?  Wow!  Most folk
I know usually deduce that it's the one that involves HZ, MSEC, or
USEC ... or, it's the single parameter to a *sleep function.  :)

For maintainability, code needs to have a few basic accommodations
for newcomers -- or semi-forgetful oldtimers.  (I think that covers
pretty much every developer, come to think of it...)  One of those
accomodations is using symbolic constants.


> > Rather than 1000 how about something like "1 * MS_PER_SEC" or something
> > similar?  I especially don't like to see magic numbers added to usbcore,
> > but the same issue applies to a lot of drivers too.
> 
> *sigh* That would mean sending out all ~63 patches again, but so it
> goes. If Greg would prefer it this way, I'd be happy to comply.

One common practice is to send out core patches plus a few
example "here's how the drivers would change" patches, purely
for comments.  (Especially if, as you say, you have concerns;
they might be shared by other folk.)  Then wait a few days
(idealy a week or so) to collect feedback before submitting
the patches.

Whenever you send out a large batch of patches, or a set of
related complex patched, it's best to have at least tried to
collect feedback beforehand ... to avoid exactly that problem. 

- Dave

 
> -Nish
> 


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