On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 9:53 PM, Carlos E. R. <carlos.e.r@opensuse.org> wrote:
When you "declare" a function and its parameters, this declaration becomes the "signature" / calling hash of the function.
Ah, yes, I understand. I know what it is, but that's not what I thought it was meant.
In Windows, the API functions are called by a number in a list. I thought you referred to this number changing or not. You can hardcode the numbers, or find them at runtime, if I recall correctly. AND, some, like M$, do not publish the entire list of available functions. Not even the, er... header definition, but nothing of what it does or how to use it. Secret functions. And some of these functions are absolutely needed to do important things, which this way, only M$ could do. Like the early explorer and desktop handler, which they were forced to disclose on court order.
You're confused with syscalls, which linux also handles in a similar way, and keeps stable. But what nVidia and AMD are facing isn't syscall instability, but internal kernel API instability. Basically, a kernel module is an object file (a chunk of kernel code) that is linked into the kernel when loaded. This makes modules intimately familiar with kernel internals: modules can access anything within the kernel since they are, effectively, part of the kernel. So what they complain about is internal instability. Some internal interfaces in the kernel are marked as "stable" (as in, don't change unless there's a very important reason for it), but the ones governing graphics are being kept outside that set. This particularly is what the companies complain about. Now, there are reasons not to mark functions as stable. One is that the interfaces may not be mature enough to commit to that interface. Doing so with an immature interface can be very limiting. Whether the decisions the kernel team takes are reasonable or not is what is being discussed in general. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org