Re: Filter design for nsmux

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 08:07:37AM +0300, Sergiu Ivanov wrote:
> On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 9:13 PM,  <olafBuddenhagen@gmx.net> wrote:

> > The real problem is organisational: changing an existing interface
> > is a very fundamental decision, and the current maintainer situation
> > regarding the Hurd means that there is nobody to approve such
> > fundamental changes... It would be very hard ever to merge it into
> > the mainline :-(
> 
> Hm... Does this mean that we are somehow discouraged to do any changes
> to things that already exist in the Hurd?..

Well, I don't really want to discourage it... Just pointing out that
it's problematic :-(

> I'm afraid I fail to see in which way Zheng's changes are less
> fundamental than the changes we are inclined to do to an existing
> interface :-)

His work extends existing functionality, but doesn't change the
interfaces. It this sense, it's a less fundamental modification...

Also, you might have noticed that none of his work got merged to the
mainline so far -- not even the relatively simple patches :-(

> A fundamental (probably) question: when you say ``translator stacking
> framework'', do you refer to the existing mechanism of stacking
> translators or to some future possibility? (the one about fast
> translator startup or something like this, probably?)

There is no "framework" part nor even a special mechanism for stacking
translators in the ordinary fashion, so obviously I'm not talking about
that. I mean a framework for optimizing translator stacking, i.e. the
"object mobility" stuff Fredrik is working on.

> > (Actually, there are still two processes -- but the functionality of
> > one of them is migrated over to the other, so one becomes an empty
> > shell, and the other does all the work.)
> 
> Hm... Sounds great :-) How do we achieve that? ;-)

By the devices of a mighty magician called Dynamic Linking...

Seriously, the details are still all very open. Moreover, they have been
and are being discussed in other threads. No need to repeat it here.

-antrik-