> > > > > > > www.linux-projects.org hosts the drivers for a bunch of chip > > > > > > > specific drivers :) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.linux-projects.org/modules/mydownloads/ > > > > > > > > > > > > As far as I know, there is currently no Linux driver for the > > > > > > sn9c20x chips. Michel Xhaard might be working on it, you could > > > > > > try to contact him. > > > > > > > > > > I Will start to write a driver for the 20x series as well. > > > > > > > > Is there any technical reason to duplicate the effort ? > > > > > > If I am not wrong, > > > > You are wrong here.The new design (gspca) is split with two branchs one > > for v4l1 the other one for v4l2. > > From the user point of view, I do not see any real advantages in having a > single bloated driver _collecting_ (not abstracting) code specific to every > chipset rather than having one thin driver per chipset.
>From the end-user point of view, the only thing that matters is having a stable driver for his hardware. By sharing code between similar drivers, development time will be reduced, and fewer bugs will be introduced. > On the contrary, from the developer point of view, the lack of > documentation, the features and the internal differences between the chips > are substantial and specific enough to justify clean and separate drivers, > even considering that the design and core part are basically identical. I'm not advocating a single driver for all webcams. It only makes sense when webcams share similar features. Many webcams use a USB bridge that relays I2C commands from the host and handles video streaming. Having common code makes sense there, with small bridge-specific and sensor-specific kernels modules that would plug into a core driver. > This makes the code easier to debug - and it's probably one of the most > important aspects to consider in kernel development. > But the main question is why you don't profit by the V4L2 drivers > already present in the kernel instead of porting them from V4l1 and having > them outside the kernel? The core part of the drivers is really stable. > This would let you focus on particular features or add support for more > hardware. I can't answer for Michel here, but when I started developing the Linux UVC driver, I decided to start from scratch instead of reusing current code from kernel drivers. The code was just not clean enough. Laurent Pinchart _______________________________________________ Linux-uvc-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/linux-uvc-devel
