Subject: Re: [PATCH] hvc_console polling mode timer backoff

From: [email-masked] (Linas Vepstas)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:03:28 -0500

On Sat, Apr 14, 2007 at 02:42:02PM -0500, Milton Miller wrote:
> 
> Did you consider making MAX_TIMEOUT a module parameter?   It could then
> be changed at runtime through /sys/modules/.

There's a philosophy (that I have warmed up to over time) that 
says that too much kernel configurability is a bad thing.  
Less configurability makes problems easier to debug: you don't
have to worry about:

-- bugs that occur for only certain parameter settings
-- some dang-fool user/sysadmin setting the timout to 
   1000 seconds (mistaking seconds for milliseconds) and
   then reporting a bug.
-- the latest fedora core having some udev script that
   finds the hvc console and slaps some crazy values into it.

Surely, we have all known that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 
developer who, when they ask you for help with a bug, 
your first questions are "did you mess with it?" and 
"which part did you mess with?"

--linas