On Wed, 18 Sep 1996 spberry@iastate.edu wrote:

> Could someone make brutally clear to me why it is that MD fixes to some of the
> worst problems of BSD are not being allowed into the source tree?

If it were up to me (which it's not, btw), I would support MD fixes in MD
parts of the tree, to some limited extent.[*]  I would be... unhappy... if
i386-centric changes were made to /sys/dev/isa files.  It's really pretty
bogus if a change to existing files in the MI part of the tree brings in
machine dependencies.

[*] In other words, copy the "MI" version of the file to the MD part of
the tree, make the modifications, and use it from there.  The bounce
buffers for the i386 port are an obvious example.  Note that this implies
some evilness in itself, because then you have two versions of the file
to update should you find something that actually benefits the person
doing the MI bounce buffer support.

> Would someone please explain to me whether everyone shares the attitude
> that if it's not MI, it should not be implemented whatsoever? 

Not everyone shares this attitude.  I suspect very few people even have
it, but due to the limitations of the communications medium, I can see why
you would have that impression.

--scott