On 2026-10-02 08:25:49, Alan C. Assis wrote: > The code duplication is only one of the issues raised there. > > I think the first and most important issue they are concerned about is the > HAL quality itself. > > Since this is a third party code you have no way to change or improve it. > You can try sending a patch, but the history proves they might ignore it. Problem with HAL is also that they are quite often designed NOT with RTOS like nuttx or zephyr in mind, but with something like freertos. And you may get an interface that is impossible to nicely integrate with OS WITHOUT duplicating things like checking input arguments or worse, having a double buffering. In effect HAL with RTOS will not only be slower but also use more flash and ram memory.
Then - as it has been mentioned already - you have to rely on OEM to support you. And trust me. THEY. WILL. STOP. At one point. As soon as it stops giving them money. OEM is not your friend. They don't add support for OSes because they are nice guys. They do this to get more money. Period. Once it costs them more than it gives back, support WILL BE cut. I fully agree with Alan that it makes much more sense to support less hardware, but do it well. This is not a race. Nobody gets paid for supporting more hardware. We all do this for the fun of it not money. Some people will give much more, some will just send few patches here and there. This is a hobby project. Hobby project should mostly care about maintainers and non-commercial end users. If company wants to use an open source project, they may very well invest some bucks into it - like writing designated drivers and not lazy ass HAL way. And call it "support". If they don't want to put money into it, then they can sod off. They are not doing anyone any favors with they crappy HALs. You guys should start thinking more in terms of "what OEM can do for us" rather than "what can we do for the OEM". They are the ones with money and interest to have support for their obscure new hardware so they can sell more chips. Open source projects should focus much more on making something you can be proud of. Not something that gets used the most - that usually comes later with quality. I'm not very active, but I'm proud of writing and merging drivers I have written from scratch. Using HAL to implement driver would feel like work - full focus on getting shit done, zero focus on having fun doing that. I'm not voting or anything, because I don't feel like I'm being active enough here to have that right. But if it were up to me, I would just ban any form of HAL right away. If company wants to use MY (and other maintainers) work they are getting FOR FUCKING FREE, they can afford putting some resources back into community to make it better (and not worse with they cheap ass HALs). Sorry for getting triggered. I don't like seeing good folks bending over for companies. And no, JUST having more chip supported is not good for end users. Having GOOD software is good for end user. Less is more.
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
