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Date:      Sat, 16 Dec 2000 15:04:25 -0500 (EST)
From:      Bosko Milekic <bmilekic@technokratis.com>
To:        Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>
Cc:        "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>, net@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Changing the names of some M_flags
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012161459010.34092-100000@jehovah.technokratis.com>
In-Reply-To: <20001216115319.Z19572@fw.wintelcom.net>

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On Sat, 16 Dec 2000, Alfred Perlstein wrote:

> > Is this just going to make portablity between the various *BSD kernels
> > more difficult for what's essentially a cosmetic change?  I'm thinking
> > of things like KAME, ALTQ, etc.
> 
> I agree, however this argument keeps coming up:
>   "I thought M_WAIT meant it would wait forever!"
> 
> Personally, I think developers should do a bit more research
> and should have noticed all the places where M_WAIT was followed
> by a check for NULL and be able to bridge the gap.
> 
> So honestly, I'm against the change, but if it has to be done
> then I'd like to see the M_DONTWAIT and M_TRYWAIT.
> 
> -- 
> -Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org]
> "I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk."

	This is _EXACTLY_ my opinion and standpoint on this issue.

	In terms of portability, though, let's be realistic: the name of a
  flag isn't going to be a major concern. When you port code, you typically
  have to read/understand what's going on anyway. So, if NetBSD for
  example, uses malloc() to allocate mbufs and passes the WAIT/NOWAIT flag
  directly down to malloc(), then it may as well never return if malloc()
  can't find a page. When porting to FreeBSD, the developer needs to know
  that that is not the case here and must make appropriate changes anyway.
  In fact, changing the flag may HELP the developer doing the porting into
  not making the mistake of assuming that it will be the same.

  Regards,
  Bosko Milekic
  bmilekic@technokratis.com




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