Messages in this thread Patch in this message | | | Date | Thu, 17 Sep 1998 18:05:02 +0100 (BST) | From | Alex Holden <> | Subject | KISS driver help message |
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Has anyone noticed the Configure.help message about KISS? I've attached a quick patch for it.
I think whoever wrote it must have misunderstood the comment at the top of mkiss.c which confusingly compares it to slip.c for some reason. For the record, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a similar thing to 6PACK, but has less functionality and is older and far more commonly used.
Whilst I'm here, a couple of gripes about the help messages:
1. Why do so many people spend weeks writing and debugging a driver then not bother to spend even five minutes to write a Configure.help entry for it? Even if it used poor English and bad grammar, there are plenty of people who could fix that. Perhaps Linus should extend the requirements for the inclusion of a new driver to including an appropriate Configure.help entry for it (and preferrably some proper documentation as well)? I hate seeing a new option with a cryptic name appear, and looking at the help to find out more about it, only to find "There is no help available for this Kernel option". Eg. what the heck is a Comtrol Hostess SV-11?
2. What's the idea with all the patronising "to browse the WWW, you need to have access to...", and "If you want to compile this driver as a module..." comments which are repeated over and over again? I somehow think that anyone who has got to the stage of wanting to compile the Linux Kernel will have some idea of what the Internet is and be able to figure out that you need a web browser to browse the web without the help of every other Linux kernel driver help message. As for modules, whilst I agree that mentioning that the driver can be used as a module and saying what the module will be called is a good idea, users don't need to be told to read Documentation/modules.txt by nearly every help message (most probably won't bother to read it anyway until it fails to work because they missed out the make modules and modules_install or something). Are these throwbacks to the days when Internet access was not common and modules were a new thing to Linux?
Best wishes, Alex.
--------------- Linux- the choice of a GNU generation. -------------- : Alex Holden (M1CJD)- Caver, Programmer, Land Rover nut, Radio Ham : -------------------- http://www.linuxhacker.org/ -------------------- --- linux/Documentation/Configure.help Thu Sep 17 15:48:09 1998 +++ linux/Documentation/Configure.help Thu Sep 17 17:04:05 1998 @@ -2777,12 +2777,12 @@ Serial port KISS driver for AX.25 CONFIG_MKISS - KISS is a protocol used to send IP traffic over AX.25 radio - connections, somewhat similar to SLIP for telephone lines. Say Y - here if you intend to send Internet traffic over amateur radio, - using some device connected to your machine's serial port. In that - case, you also have to say Y to "Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2" - support. + KISS is a protocol used for the exchange of data between a computer + and a Terminal Node Controller (a small embedded system commonly + used for networking over AX25 amateur radio connections). + Although KISS is less advanced than the 6pack protocol, it has + the advantage that it is already supported by most modern TNCs + without the need for a firmware upgrade. If you want to compile this driver as a module ( = code which can be inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want), | |