Re: [dpdk-dev] tools brainstorming

[Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>]

On Thu, 9 Apr 2015 21:10:19 +0000
"Wiles, Keith" <keith.wiles@intel.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 4/9/15, 2:38 PM, "Jay Rolette" <rolette@infiniteio.com> wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Thu, Apr 09, 2015 at 11:31:39AM -0500, Jay Rolette wrote:
> >> > On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 5:38 PM, Stephen Hemminger <
> >> > stephen@networkplumber.org> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > On Wed, 8 Apr 2015 16:29:54 -0600
> >> > > Jay Rolette <rolette@infiniteio.com> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > > > "C comments" includes //, right? It's been part of the C standard
> >> for a
> >> > > long time now...
> >> > >
> >> > > Yes but.
> >> > > I like to use checkpatch and checkpatch enforces kernel style which
> >> does
> >> > > not allow // for
> >> > > comments.
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> > Fork checkpatch and disable that bit? DPDK isn't the kernel, so no
> >> > requirement to follow all of its rules
> >> >
> >>
> >> Doesn't that beg the question, why?  I understand the DPDK isn't the
> >> kernel, but
> >> we're not talking about clarity of code, not anything functional to that
> >> code.
> >> It seems we would be better served by just taking something that works
> >>here
> >> rather than re-inventing the wheel and digging into the minuate of what
> >> type of
> >> comments should be allowed (unless there is a compelling reason to
> >>change
> >> it
> >> that supercedes the avilable tools).  If not checkpath, then some other
> >> tool,
> >> but It seems to me that coding style is one of those things where we can
> >> bend to
> >> the tool rather than taking the time to make the tool do exactly whats
> >> desired,
> >> at least until someone gets the time to modify it.
> >>
> >
> >Fair question.
> >
> >It depends a bit on how much you want to encourage patch contributions. Is
> >it worth adding more pain for folks trying to contribute patches for
> >things
> >like this?
> >
> >Should we force someone to spend time redoing a patch because of which way
> >they do their parenthesis? What about number of spaces to indent code? //
> >vs /* */ comments? None of these matter functionally and they don't affect
> >maintenance generally.
> >
> >If someone is modifying existing code, then yeah, they should follow the
> >prevailing style (indention level, brace alignment, etc.) of the file they
> >are in. It helps readability, which makes maintenance easier. However,
> >IMO,
> >mixing // and /* */ for comments doesn't affect the readability of the
> >source.
> >
> >I know if I submit a patch and the only feedback is that I should have
> >used
> >/* */ for comments, I'm extremely unlikely spend extra time to resubmit
> >the
> >patch for pedantry.
> 
> I looked at checkpatch.pl for few minutes and the code does check for C99
> comments and adding a command line option to allow C99 comments could
> pretty simple. I found the code around line 3048 or search for C99, it is
> possible it could accepted back into Linux as long as the default option
> was to not allow C99 comments.
> 
> Allowing C99 comments would be nice and the only problem I could see if
> some compiler has a problem with them. I believe all of the compilers we
> support allow C99 comments.
> 
> The only other reason to allow them is if we add some open source code in
> the future to DPDK which has C99 comments and if would be a pain to have
> to convert that code every time the open source group released a new
> version. It does open that path IMO.
> 
> Regards,
> ++Keith
> >
> 

But forking a tool means maintaining that tool.