Re: cmd line hist etc

[Erik M. <J.A...@IT...>]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2001 at 02:37:41PM +0200, Stefan Eletzhofer wrote:
> well, ok then. From your comments I assume that I'll have to put this code
> under a #ifdef and make it a compile-time option.

No, I'd rather have it removed completely. It doesn't belong in a boot
loader which main goal was to be simple.

> Please do understand my arguments, tough:
> - blob is a bootloader, yes. Most of the time only loads the kernel in a
> specified (quick) way, nothing else.

Say 99.99% of all cases.

> - when one gets a defective board from a customer, blob _could_ be used
> as a diagnosis tool as well. I do not want to have first a special
> blob version flashed, because then i'd have to change the system in
> order to check it. I want to test the board as it is, right then when
> i get it. I could even instruct a technican via phone, specially
> useful when the board is somewhere in brazil and a machine does not
> work because of your board not running (which ist exactly what will
> happen, think of murphy's law).

This is where a diagnostics tool comes in handy. Make a standalone
diagnostics tool that can be downloaded with "download kernel". Now
type "boot", and voila, you're running the diagnostics tool.

> - a command line history is rather handy if you have to issue
> several commands in a row and misspelled one

- blob commands are simple. "download krnl" can be easily retyped as
  "download kernel".
- Several commands in a row almost never happens and if it happens it
  doesn't justify a command line history. The longest command sequence
  I know is "download kernel ; flash kernel ; download ramdisk ; flash
  ramdisk" but that is scriptable as Wookey showed before.

> - that's why i keep adding test/diagnosis commands, because i _know_
> i will need exactly these commands later for customer support,
> because i need them _now_ to get our new board running.

OK, what about this:

We keep blob simple: no command line editor, no diagnostics tools.
Instead, we add a directory diag, in which we create a separate
diagnostics tools that can be loaded by blob. Blob and diag could share
quite some code (serial ports, command line, etc), but apart from that
they are independent. Diag can get more features needed for
diagnostics, but blob remains simple. Deal?


Erik

-- 
J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Department
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems,
Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031,  2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-15-2783635  Fax: +31-15-2781843  Email: J.A...@it...
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