Re: [virtio-comment] comments for the virtio spec - Introduction section

[Rusty Russell <rusty@au1.ibm.com>]

"Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com> writes:
> I think we can take away these points about the introduction:
>
> 1. they in "they are not all that different" is ambigious. One might think it means
>    virtual environments (which one might take to mean all
>    virtual devices) are like physical devices.
> 2. from what point of view is virtio like a physical device?
>    it's very different from host POV
> 3. "the guest" appears out of nowhere. It's the guest that runs
>    in the vm of course.
> 4. "not all that different" means similar so there's not need to be
>    verbose
> 5. This in "This allows" is ambigious: what allows guest to use standard drivers?
>    It's the device being like a physical one - not how this
>    document is written.
>
> So I think this will address this comment without making strong claims.
>
> diff --git a/abstract.tex b/abstract.tex
> index b42a0b6..6684540 100644
> --- a/abstract.tex
> +++ b/abstract.tex
> @@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
> -This document describes the specifications of the “virtio” family of
> -devices. These devices are found in virtual environments, yet by
> -design they are not all that different from physical devices, and this
> -document treats them as such. This allows the guest to use standard
> -drivers and discovery mechanisms.
> +This document describes the specifications of the “virtio” family of
> +devices. These devices are found in virtual environments, yet by
> +design from the point of view of the virtual machine guest
> +virtio devices look similar to physical devices -
> +and this document treats them as such.
> +This similarity allows the guest to use standard
> +drivers and discovery mechanisms.

'from the point of view of the virtual machine guest' is a bit long.

Perhaps ", yet by design they look like physical devices to the guest
within the virtual machine."?

>> 8. Standard: CHANGE TO READ: Virtio makes no assumptions about the environment in which
>>   it operates, beyond what is required in order to allow the bus to  attach the host device to the driver on the guest.  Virtio
>>   devices are implemented over PCI and other buses, and earlier drafts that
>>   have been implemented on other buses not included in this specification.[2]
>> 
>> Thanks!
>
> It looks like "supporting the bus attaching the device" can be
> misunderstood to mean we need to support attaching
> the device. In reality this talks about supporting the bus.
>
> This should address this:
>
> -  it operates, beyond supporting the bus attaching the device.  Virtio
> -  it operates, beyond supporting the bus to which the device is attached.  Virtio

That works.

So we add this?

Cheers,
Rusty.

diff --git a/abstract.tex b/abstract.tex
index b42a0b6..6e0fb27 100644
--- a/abstract.tex
+++ b/abstract.tex
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 This document describes the specifications of the “virtio” family of
 devices. These devices are found in virtual environments, yet by
-design they are not all that different from physical devices, and this
+design they look like physical devices to the guest
+within the virtual machine - and this
 document treats them as such. This allows the guest to use standard
 drivers and discovery mechanisms.
 
diff --git a/introduction.tex b/introduction.tex
index 5d57f78..6c59887 100644
--- a/introduction.tex
+++ b/introduction.tex
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ inter-guest communication) requires copying.
   lines.
 
   Standard: Virtio makes no assumptions about the environment in which
-  it operates, beyond supporting the bus attaching the device.  Virtio
+  it operates, beyond supporting the bus to which the device is attached.  Virtio
   devices are implemented over PCI and other buses, and earlier drafts
   been implemented on other buses not included in this spec.
 \footnote{The Linux implementation further separates the PCI virtio code