[alsa-devel] [PATCH 0/2] ALSA: bebob/fireworks: remove module parameters to reduce maintenance work

[Takashi Iwai]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:22:13 +0200,
Takashi Sakamoto wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> This patchset removes some module parameters from ALSA bebob and fireworks
> driver.
> 
> These two modules have three parameters for users to assign preferable
> number and strings to a sound card as some modules in ALSA kernel land.
> However, they're not used so widely, and practically I suspect their
> advantages.
> 
> To simplify and unify the shape of modules in ALSA firewire stack, I'd
> like to remove them.

Well, "it simplifies the code" alone doesn't justify the removal of
these long-time existing parameters.  You can't know how it's been
used only from the narrow range surveys.  These are mostly workarounds
for some special setups, so they don't hit usually.

The usefulness of these parameters is another question, though.
They are far from perfect, and have logic flaws.  They are present,
however, mostly for consistency and historical reasons.
(In some cases it's useful, e.g. a device gives some id string you
 don't want to spell.  The parameter allows you to rename it.
 Or, in most cases, the index is used for reserving the first slot to
 onboard chip for some legacy apps.)

So, the question is how much benefit we can get by this action.  Is
this small piece of code really so much burden to maintain?  If yes,
I'd like to hear it at first.  If not, we should evaluate the risk of
possible breakage as the first priority.


thanks,

Takashi


> 
> Takashi Sakamoto (2):
>   ALSA: bebob: remove module parameters to reduce maintenance work
>   ALSA: fireworks: remove module parameters to reduce maintenance work
> 
>  sound/firewire/bebob/bebob.c         | 49 +++++-------------------------------
>  sound/firewire/bebob/bebob.h         |  1 -
>  sound/firewire/fireworks/fireworks.c | 43 +++----------------------------
>  sound/firewire/fireworks/fireworks.h |  1 -
>  4 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 84 deletions(-)
> 
> -- 
> 2.7.3
>