[U-Boot] [PATCH 0/57] RFC: Move arch-specific global data into its own structure

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Simon Glass,

In message <1353100842-20126-1-git-send-email-sjg at chromium.org> you wrote:
> The previous generic board series hit a snag in that we needed generic
> code to access some of the architecture-specific fields in global_data.

I missed that.  Can you please summarize what exactly the problem was,
and how this modification is supposed to fix it?

> The solution eventually arrived at was to move these fields into a
> separate structure, so that global_data has the generic fields,
> and within that there is an arch_global_data structure holding the
> architecture-specific ones.
> 
> This series makes that change. Assuming this is reasonable, the next
> step is to bring back the generic board patches on top of this.

This cover letter has a RFC in the subject,. but the following patch
series does not.  This is actually bad!

General comments / questions:

- We always attempted to keep global data as small as possible.  What
  happens here appears to be a move in a totally wrong direction.
  Instead of simplyfiyng it (and moving stuff out of global data), we
  add more and more complexity to it.  That's wrong.  We should not
  do that.

- The change makes the code less readable.  Reading "gd->arch."
  instead of plain "gd->" is no improvements, but rather vice versa.
  If we really go this way, this should be improved.

- What exactly is the impact of this code changes on the memory
  footprint?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
I'm what passes for a Unix guru in my office. This is  a  frightening
concept. - Lee Ann Goldstein, in <3k55ba$c43 at butch.lmsc.lockheed.com>