Xserver driver merging pros & cons

[Michel Dänzer]

On Don, 2011-09-15 at 15:12 -0700, Chase Douglas wrote: 
> On 09/15/2011 02:41 PM, Matt Turner wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Jesse Barnes <jbarnes at virtuousgeek.org> wrote:
> >> Pros:
> >>  1) easier to propagate API changes across drivers (just like Linux)
> >>     1a) thus easier to change ABI
> > 
> > I suppose that's true. How often are we breaking the ABI though? How
> > often do we break the ABI and it doesn't get fixed in the drivers we
> > care about within a day or so? It's strange to sort of pretend that we
> > care about other drivers simply for the point of this argument.
> 
> This needs an extra sub-point:
> 1b) thus easier to git-bisect issues
> 
> The problems enterprise distros may have with merging the drivers back
> into the server may be offset by this point. I used to work in a much
> more enterprise-like distro role before I began at Canonical, and I can
> attest that bisectable sources were a *big* win when a bug was
> reproducible and the sources could actually be bisected. The current X
> approach fails the latter condition.

It's not impossible now (been there, done that), though you're certainly
right it would be easier.


-- 
Earthling Michel Dänzer           |                   http://www.amd.com
Libre software enthusiast         |          Debian, X and DRI developer