[PATCH 1/3] spi: added spi_resource management

[Martin Sperl]

On 02.12.2015 13:29, Mark Brown wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 02, 2015 at 08:30:51AM +0100, Martin Sperl wrote:
>
>>> This has exactly one (tiny) user.  Why is it a separate function?
>
>> Readability, mimicking devres code and the option of adding
>> object caching/reuse here later...
>
> This is *not* helping readability.
Originally it contained a bit more code to avoid repeated allocations,
which was cut out for the initial version of the patch.

>> There is a much higher likelihood that spi_resources will be
>> allocated and then freed several times per second, so this
>> can save cpu cycles and avoid locks...
>
> In what way does splitting this over two functions helping improve
> performance?  If there were multiple users or something perhaps but
> there don't appear to be.
>

It does not help performance per se, but it allows adding more
code in that location that would allow to reuse allocated objects.

As of now I will merge those 2 functions.

The bigger question (based on your comments to Patch 2/3) is:

Do you want to follow the devres approach (i.e: hiding
"struct spi_res" after allocation and returning "void *"
to the data-payload only in spi_res_alloc)?

Or do you prefer to have "struct spi_res" as an explicit member of
a structure (i.e. in Patch 2/3 "struct spi_res_replaced_transfers")?

I want to get this settled before submitting newer versions of the
other patches that address other concerns, because any changes to
spi_res design directly impact these other patches.

Thanks,
	Martin