[netdrivers] Re: [driver-announce] Updated mii-diag.c v2.09 9/06/2003 (fwd)

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003, Donald Becker wrote:

> In this case, 'mii-diag' isn't descriptive of the general purpose nature
> of the tool.  Many of the the other programs configure and diagnose
> hardware-specific problems, while 'mii-diag' is hardware independent.

Sorry, but I don't see the general purpose nature of mii-diag as it stands
now. It does lots of stuff around the MII and little else; if the -g, -G
and -M switches would vanish there wouldn't be anything that isn't MII 
related, so I always thought that mii-diag is a good name.

> How about
> 'a-command-to-configure-network-transceivers-and-driver-parameters' or
> is that too long?

I found that the operations done by each mii-diag and card-specific-diag
are well separated, so in the same spirit I would suggest leaving 
'mii-diag' as 'a-command-to-configure-network-transceivers' and have 
another one which can then be called 'netif-config' as
'a-command-to-configure-driver-parameters'... Unix style: do little, but 
do good.

-- 
Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De