Subject: Re: Amiga mice are real devices now
To: None <is@beverly.rhein.de>
From: Chris G Demetriou <Chris_G_Demetriou@UX2.SP.CS.CMU.EDU>
List: current-users
Date: 04/25/1996 00:00:54
> (but this will have been taken care of by the std.amiga patch,
>  although cgd doesn't seem to like the idea of mice in the std.amiga file.)

That's a bit unfair...  You say that I don't like them, but don't
bother including any of the _reasons_...  namely:

	(1) if you put devices which aren't present on all machines
	    in std.foo, then machines which don't have them will end
	    up including the drivers anyway --> bloated kernels.

	(2) if you put things in std.foo that are not _necessary_ for
	    the port to work, then you're 'strongly encouraging'
	    (almost, but not quite, forcing) people to use them.

(1) will bite _you_ in the future, when you get support for your DraCo
boards in...  after all, why did you make it a seperate device to
begin with?  (because DraCo's dont have them, right?)

(2) means that, if, say, users will always have parallel and serial
ports, but know that they will never use them, they won't be able to
easily remove them from their kernels...  In other words, you're
forcing their kernels to be larger than necessary.


cgd