On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 08:03:18AM -0400, Jeff Layton wrote: > On Wed, 2021-08-25 at 07:32 +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 03:44:48PM -0400, Theodore Ts'o wrote: > > > The problem is whether we use struct head_page, or folio, or mempages, > > > we're going to be subsystem users' faces. And people who are using it > > > every day will eventually get used to anything, whether it's "folio" > > > or "xmoqax", we sould give a thought to newcomers to Linux file system > > > code. If they see things like "read_folio()", they are going to be > > > far more confused than "read_pages()" or "read_mempages()". > > > > Are they? It's not like page isn't some randomly made up term > > as well, just one that had a lot more time to spread. > > > > Absolutely. "folio" is no worse than "page", we've just had more time > to get used to "page". I /like/ the name 'folio'. My privileged education :P informed me (when Matthew talked to me the very first time about this patchset) that it's a wonderfully flexible word that describes both a collection of various pages and a single large sheet of paper folded in half. Or in the case of x86, folded in half nine times. That's *exactly* the usage that Matthew is proposing. English already had a word ready for us to use, so let's use it. --D (Well, ok, the one thing I dislike is that my brain keeps typing out 'fileio' instead of 'folio', but it's still better than struct xmoqax or remembering if we do camel_case or PotholeCase.) > > > So if someone sees "kmem_cache_alloc()", they can probably make a > > > guess what it means, and it's memorable once they learn it. > > > Similarly, something like "head_page", or "mempages" is going to a bit > > > more obvious to a kernel newbie. So if we can make a tiny gesture > > > towards comprehensibility, it would be good to do so while it's still > > > easier to change the name. > > > > All this sounds really weird to me. I doubt there is any name that > > nicely explains "structure used to manage arbitrary power of two > > units of memory in the kernel" very well. So I agree with willy here, > > let's pick something short and not clumsy. I initially found the folio > > name a little strange, but working with it I got used to it quickly. > > And all the other uggestions I've seen s far are significantly worse, > > especially all the odd compounds with page in it. > > Same here. Compound words are especially bad, as newbies will > continually have to look at whether it's "page_set" or "pageset". > > -- > Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx> >
