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Subject: Re: [virtio] [PATCH 4/5] packed-ring: reposition drivernormative on driver notifications



On 04/10/2018 01:05 PM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 10/04/2018 12:25, Halil Pasic wrote:
>> All I did was to move the device normative to a better place. IMHO
>> it's current place is obviously wrong.
> 
> I agree with that - but IMO you're now separating two related paragraphs.
> 

I'm not separating them they were separated, but I get your point.

>> So, I read your comment as
>> there should be a patch on top that further integrates the paragraphs
>> made adjacent by this patch. Is that right?
> 
> It can even be the same patch, reworked to put something like this in
> the normative text:
> 
> The driver MUST ensure the write to the \field{flags} field is performed
> before the read of the Driver Event Suppression, in order to avoid
> missing a notification from the device.
>

Will do a it, but I prefer to make this an extra patch.
 
>> About the normative statements. I hinted before that I don't really
>> understand the role of normative statements in this specification. To
>> be more precise, my naive understanding of their role is in conflict
>> with the reality of the specification.
>>
>> Can someone tell me what is supposed to go in a normative statements
>> and what is supposed to go outside? Along with an estimate how good
>> are we at adhering to those rules.
> 
> Anything that is declared "MUST", "SHOULD" or "MAY" constitutes a
> normative statement.
> 

The problem here is, that this sentence you reformulated as a
'MUST' sentence was formulated as a 'has to be careful' sentence.

My concern (regarding the whole spec) is the completeness and self
the containment of it's normative portion -- I'm not sure if either is
pursued rigorously. For instance take 'Supplying Buffers to The
Device' either for split or for packed. The algorithms described
there aren't constituting a normative section. Do you think these
can be inferred from the normative sections?

Are the normative statements (e.g in v1.0 cs4) sufficient to
guarantee conforming implementations work (interoperably)? 

In math we have primitive notions, definitions, axioms, theorems, proofs
and hypotheses. Textbooks also have less formal text (beyond the
stuff listed) to either help with the understanding, or provide background.

My naive understanding of the purpose of non-normative sections of this
specification is: definitions, background (e.g. legacy interface),
and explanations facilitating *easier* understanding.

To stay at the math analogy, the device normative statements are
most akin to axioms I guess. As axioms along with primitive notions
and definitions, what constitutes a formal system.

So that's where my question is coming from. And I'm not keen to
put too much work into this. I'm just curious how should I reason
about stuff (when reviewing and voting for example). Sorry for getting
philosophical.

Regards,

Halil



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