From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jan 10 10:48:21 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id KAA23100 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 10:48:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from border.com (ns.border.com [199.71.190.98]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA23094 for ; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 10:48:18 -0800 (PST) Received: by janus.border.com id <20483>; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 13:50:34 -0500 Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 13:47:44 -0500 From: Jerry Kendall To: Nate Williams Cc: dennis , hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: pppd vs ijppp In-Reply-To: <199601101800.LAA18199@rocky.sri.MT.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Message-Id: <96Jan10.135034est.20483@janus.border.com> Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, Nate Williams wrote: > > [ kernel PPP vs. user-land PPP ] > > > Improving kernel debugging is not difficult...we debug much more > > complicated things than ppp within the kernel space. The fact than > > pppd debugging is poor is not a good reason to adulterate the entire > > mechanism. > > But the idea is to *remove* things from the kernel that make sense to > remove from the kernel. > > > Good datacomm should focus on the 99% and not the 1%. Imagine if you > > moved ethernet processing to user space to improve debugging? > > I doubt very much that 99.9% of the users notice the load difference > between user-land ppp and kernel ppp. > > Downsides to adding the features to the kernel: > 1) It's always in memory even if the user doesn't want it. > 2) It's difficult to debug > 3) It doesn't belong in the kernel since it's not a 'kernel' type of function. 1)Since most users will want access to the Internet AND most *people* compare just about everything to what microsoft is offering(Win95), having it in memory is not that bad, how much memory can it really take??? 2)Do you think it was easy for microsoft people to debug it... Since this is *free*BSD, if some *people* want it, then why not have it supported at the kernel level??? 3)That is like saying TCP does not belong in the kernel. > > Upsides: > 1) It's faster. > > Show me why your upsides is better than the downsides above? Show me > that it negatively affects a significant # of users (not in your mind, > in their mind). Getting 10% better throughput will cut down the amount of time 'joe user' takes to get the files/info he needs, cut down the amount of time *other* users have to wait, the faster your PPP subsystem can receive the info, the faster you get of the net....... I could go on for a little more but I think I have said enough to squash your arguments.... > > > Nate > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any comments or opinions in this message are my own and may or may not reflect those of my present or previous employers. Jerry Kendall Border Network Technologies System Software Engineer 416.368.7157 ext 303 jerry@border.com Fax 416.368.7178