What is the minimum quality needed for drivers to move out of staging?

[Greg KH]

A: No.
Q: Should I include quotations after my reply?

http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/on_top

On Fri, Oct 08, 2010 at 08:22:16PM +0530, PRASANNA KUMAR wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> 
> I have not had much experience in driver programming (i am new to driver 
> programming world) in any of the operating systems.

Heh, stop right there.  You need to get experience in this before you
can judge if something like an "automated" tool would ever really work
properly.

> I came across some tools that other operating systems provide for
> checking the quality. My idea is that if we have a automated tool that
> could test the driver it will be easy for the developer, maintainer
> and also for the user. The automated test scripts could do check for
> minimum functionality and depending on that the driver developer could
> take actions to improve and clean up the driver.

Again, human review, which is what we do in Linux, is much better than
automated tools for a wide variety of reasons.

But hey, if you want to write some automated tools, that certainly can't
hurt :)

> These tests help not only meeting the quality of code but also gives
> importance to functionality and features support (this is what a user
> who is new to linux or computer system wants). Is there any
> possibility that some developer could need a generic script for each
> category of driver (be it sound, usb, video, serial etc etc). I would
> be glad to write some script (tests).

The problem is, there are too many different types, and new types being
created every day.

good luck,

greg k-h