[En-Nut-Discussion] Missing status return option in driver structure

[Ulrich Prinz]

Hi again :)

Yes I am actually doing NutO/S coding for four projects in parallel, so 
there will be more to com from my side :)

Attaching a graphical OLED to the system, that should be simply used by 
printf() I went the same way as the HD44780 or this STsomthing LCD.

I have a NUTDEVICE for the OLED, referring to a TERMDCB for the term.c 
code. With that one can easily do character output and some cursor 
control oon the display.

But I have some different displays ans some hardware that have slight 
differences. I dream of displays that can return some information over 
the SPI, but I never saw one of them :(

Now, the NUTDEVICE has an init function, returning an int as status if 
the init failed. Sow the software can tell if the other software failed. 
But the TERMDCB only accepts a void from the hardware init function. So 
the hardware cannot tell the software if it failed.

The most reasons for the return codes in the NutO/S driver structure 
are, that there might not be enough memory for installing the drivers 
variables, structs or buffers in the ram. My hardware driver for the 
oled needs some bytes of ram too and I prefer to install them only if 
the hardware is found and the hardware is needed.

As a result you cannot detect, if the hardware failed and take actions 
like reconfiguration, trying a different address for the hardware or 
anything else. I even cannot detect if there is not enough ram to 
install hardware drivers that need some ram space.

So, how about modifying this and giving hardware driver related Init() 
functions always a return as int? I just ask if there is any reason 
against that? If not, I'll include that into trunk in one of my next 
updates.

And yes, the new led driver is missing its led.c... On my work PC it's 
there, in the repository, it's there, but on my home PC it doesn't 
appear in the checkout... If one of you guys has it hidden under his 
keyboard, trust me I'll get you  :)

Best regards, Ulrich