In article <20010116235724.3143.qmail@mail.netbsd.org> you write:
	>Examples of data that are currently problematical but could easily be passed
	>as properties are device locators, which require and arbitrary bus-specific
	>structure to pass betwen the parent bus node and the child device node,

	How would device properties help here?  The foo_attach_args structure
	has to be passed to a driver's match function, before there's a struct
	device to associate any properties with.

One option is to do what Solaris does: have `struct device' as
a separate structure than the device's softc, so the `struct device'
can be generated before the match routine.

	>int setprop(struct device *dev, const char *name, void *val, size_t len, int flags);

	>size_t getprop(struct device *dev, const char *name, void *val, 
	>			size_t len, int flags);

	Hmm.  I'd somehow prefer to be passing around void *s, rather than
	copying the data all the time.  This does lead to a problem of what to
	do if md_getprop had to dynamically allocate a property, though.

I considered that idea originally and determined that md_getprop(9)
would have to allocate data dynamically, *and* it would be difficult
or impossible to determine when and how to free the data.

Eduardo