Hi all, I have been looking into our HALs recently on the promise that it is a huge mess that needs fixing. Well, as a start I could imagine merging our 6 possible x86 HALs (Legacy, ACPI, APIC, ACPI+APIC, SMP, SMP+ACPI) into a single one, even if Windows ships individual ones. I see many advantages of that:
* Less duplications and reduced mess: Right now, the APIC HAL hangs at HalpCalibrateStallExecution during boot, a function that has been fixed and universally implemented in all non-APIC HALs. The APIC HAL also duplicates HalpInitializePICs as HalpInitializeLegacyPIC. If you look at the SMP code, it didn't even receive the last build system changes and has conflicting implementations for APIC functions. A single x86 HAL would ensure that all possible configurations are maintained. * Future-proof: How is one going to implement newer features like x2APIC with a structure like that? Would it get another HAL, be integrated into the APIC HAL, or what? We wouldn't have such problems with a single x86 HAL. * Less setup work and testing: Currently, 1st stage setup detects the computer type and installs the appropriate HAL. As such, every additional HAL needs to be added to 1st stage setup code. The user is also able to select a custom HAL during setup, even if it wouldn't work on the machine. We should give neither the user nor the setup the ability to decide. The HAL itself knows best at boot-up what features to enable and what not. * Convenience: The same ReactOS installation could be used on several different x86 computers. So is this the way to go or do I miss something important? Best regards, Colin _______________________________________________ Ros-dev mailing list Ros-dev@reactos.org http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
