In  <Pine.NEB.3.93.970328122636.20240y-100000@gnostic.cynic.net> , you wrote:

> On Fri, 28 Mar 1997, Matt Thomas wrote:
> 
> > And treat the variant as a very thin bus?  It would make the config
> > file a bit more complicated but it would allow more precise of what
> > variants you do need to support.
> > 
> > This could be applied to the NE2000/WD/SMC driver as well.
> 
> I would find it less useful, because right now I can replace an
> SMC card with a generic NE2000 clone and my machine continues to
> work without modification. With your method, if I understand it
> correctly, I would not only have to make sure that both types of
> card were in the config file (SMC w/ shared memory vs. NE2K clone
> using PIO), but I'd also have to rename my /etc/hostname.smc0 file
> to /etc/hostname.ne0, or whatever.

Actually, it's still be ed0 (or whatever) since the bus is not the
name of the device.  Yes, you'd have to have more entries in your config
file but on the other hand is would allow for smaller kernels.

> The more cards a single driver can work with, the merrier, I say.

Yes and no.  I'd like to se more generic drivers exist in dev/ic and
then interface hooks in the various bus directories.  I don't like
seeing drivers with (probe this, probe that, ...).  I'd rather see the
probe moved to separate modules.
-- 
Matt Thomas               Internet:   matt@3am-software.com
3am Software Foundry      WWW URL:    http://www.3am-software.com/bio/matt.html
Westford, MA              Disclaimer: I disavow all knowledge of this message