Re: [RFC] split floppy support off biosdisk

[Robert Millan]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 07:03:50PM +0800, Bean wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 5:15 PM, Robert Millan <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 02:30:38PM +0800, Bean wrote:
> >>
> >> The fd and hd device share many code, separating them is not a good
> >> idea.
> >
> > If code duplication is a problem, we could link the same code staticaly for
> > each module.  Size of biosdisk module is an issue, because it's always used
> > in core.img, but size of floppy module isn't, because it's never needed for
> > bootstrap.
> >
> >> Perhaps what we need is a way to optionally disable the floppy
> >> device, for example, with a variable such as no_floppy.
> >
> > But that makes biosdisk bigger, not smaller :-(
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Is size really that important ? I think even if you split the module,
> it would only save very little space, which doesn't matter in the big
> picture, unless you have a situation where the current size is very
> closed to the upper limit.

No, not really..  I think I'm being overzealous.  I'll see about using
that variable.

> In that case, I suggest more dramatic
> action, like replacing lzo with a strong compression algorithm, like
> lzma, which would save a few thousand bytes.

I recall this being discussed before.  Possibly this would make the
decompressor bigger, too.  Did you check the trade-off is good?

-- 
Robert Millan

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