Re: Removing ARCNET stuffs

[Radoslaw Kujawa <radoslaw.kujawa%c0ff33.net@localhost>]

> On 28 May 2015, at 10:30, Ryota Ozaki <ozaki-r%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 3:58 PM, Frank Wille <frank%phoenix.owl.de@localhost> wrote:
>> On Thu, 28 May 2015 11:57:11 +0900
>> Ryota Ozaki <ozaki-r%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
>> 
>>>> As far as I can see Arcnet is only used by the Amiga bah(4) driver.
>>>> Isn't it possible to keep it somehow, as an MP-safe network stack would
>>>> be irrelevant for the Amiga platform?
>>> 
>>> We could keep it with some pain, but we cannot keep it working if there is
>>> really no user. (I'm not sure if it works or not even now.) Is it still
>>> worthwhile?
>> 
>> I will not insist in keeping it when there is pain to do so. And you may
>> be right that there is no user, but this is valid for a lot of platforms
>> and drivers.
>> 
>> 
>>> Anyway I don't proceed this attempt ignoring your request.
>>> I wish there were actual users though...
>> 
>> Maybe we can wait for a few days to give more potential users the chance
>> to read these messages on the port-amiga list?
> 
> Sure. I was a bit eager.
> 
>> 
>> In the meantime I will talk with other Amiga users if anybody owns such
>> a board. Probably is@ still got one, as he was working on the driver many
>> years ago.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>> 
>> When nothing happens and nobody is able to test it, we can remove the code.
> 
> Okay, I'm waiting more.

There are companies still making PCI Express ARCnet interface cards, hubs and converter devices:
http://www.ccontrols.com/arccontrol/nims.htm

I'm not entirely sure that removing support for a standard that is still actually used out in the world is a good idea. Maybe it is not used much with NetBSD, since we only have amiga-specific driver. One more downside, is that anything ARCnet related is rather expensive now (around $400 for a single new PCI interface card).

I wish I had more free time... fixing ARCnet and implementing support for newer interface cards seems like an interesting project.

Support for several legacy protocols was removed in recent years. I fear that our networking stack is becoming more and more IP and Ethernet centric.

-- 
Best regards,
Radoslaw Kujawa