FreeLists / openbeosnetteam / [openbeosnetteam] Re: Kernel move...

["Marcus Overhagen" <ml@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Nathan Whitehorn" <nathan.whitehorn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Orange boxes notwithstanding, I still believe integration into the 
>kernel proper is a mistake, because it (1) requires our flexibility in 
>the long term, (2) splits up our code, and (3) makes networking a 
>special kind of kernel module, which , in my opinion, is a mistake in 
>terms of kernel design.

While it may be a cleaner design for a kernel to not have any 
networking functionality, putting it into the kernel might be a nice
idea anyway.
Making networking a special kind of a kernel modul is perhaps
the biggest hack, we should not do that. Either we keep the 
current way, doing everything using open, close and ioctl
(which does not look very much like a hack when your kernel 
has a working select, which the new kernel has),
or we add all functions to the kernel, not only socket, but also 
everything else, like recv, accept, bind, ....

The first approach has the advantage that that you can remove 
networking from the kernel without needing a new kernel, the
second has the advantage that your kernel has networking
functions (but perhaps not all, what about the name resolution
and other things, do we really want *all* network functions
to be in the kernel. Needs to be done for full, useful support).

I'm not sure. Has nobody else here on this list an opinion about this?

Marcus