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Date:	Mon, 21 Aug 2000 07:48:15 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
To:	Christoph Hellwig <hch@caldera.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Re: Move of input drivers, some word needed from you



On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> >
> > Who will send the joystick Makefile/Config.in patch to Linus? Please send it
> > ASAP, I'll do the hackery for CONFIG_INPUT_ADBHID after that then.
> 
> Me. Here's a patch for -test7pre5.
> NOTE (for Linus): beside the Changes to the makefiles and {C,c}onfig.ins
> this is the same as moving drivers/joystick/*.c and drivers/usb/{evdev.c,
> hid-debug.h, hid.c, hid.h, iforce.c, input.c, keybdev.c, mousedev.c, usbkbd.c,
> usbmouse.c, wacom.c } to drivers/input

I have yet to understand WHY all of this is done.

Why?

I personally think this is a major step backwards. Moving things to be in
the same directory just because it made some configuration easier. Nobody
has explained to me why you couldn't just add one new configuration
option, and make the affected drivers (in their regular places) dependent
on that configuration option.

Are all the SCSI drivers going to be under drivers/scsi/? No. The "normal"
ones that don't have any better place for them are, but nobody has really
suggested moving drivers/usb/storage around to another place just because
it uses the SCSI layer.

This patch is not going in until somebody can explain to me (in words of
one syllable) why it makes any sense at all. As far as I can tell, it
would be a ton more cleaner to do just

	mv drivers/usb/input.c drivers/char/

and add a config option for it that the real drivers (wherever they may
be - be they USB, firewire, joysticks, what-not) can know to disable
themselves or not.

I object to moving files around in ways that makes the tree _less_ clear.
I want the kernel tree to be a nice hierarchy of drivers, filesystems,
etc. I don't see the point in lumping everything together in one
subdirectory just because they happen to be "input" devices, regardless of
what kind of device they really are.

		Linus

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