[meta-xilinx] [PATCH 05/20] Add basic Xilinx HDF support

[Nathan Rossi]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 3:51 AM, Manjukumar Harthikote Matha
<manjukumar.harthikote-matha at xilinx.com> wrote:
> Hi Nathan,
>
> On 04/19/2016 02:48 AM, Nathan Rossi wrote:
>
>> For a task this simple, I really don't see any benefits in using HSI,
>> since it is not as if there is any platform processing it is simply
>> extracting the pre-generated files. In fact I think there is a
>> potential for more problems with using the HSI tools (version
>> incompatibilities are the biggest issue) as opposed to simply
>> extracting the HDF file, at least for this case.
>>
> I agree it is relatively simple, but it is a bad methodology according to
> me. The contents of HDF file are tool dependent, they are meant to work with
> HSI or XSCT etc. Writing a code to extract contents without the required
> tools can cause potential problems in future, for example if there were
> changes to HDF contents etc (ex: formats).
>
>>>
>>> The other issue is if this patch is not accepted, the board support will
>>> be
>>> missing.
>>
>>
>> With the changes discussed previously, I am happy to apply it. I doubt
>> there will be a better solution to this problem any time in the
>> relatively near future.
>>
> The only relatively near future solution will be meta-xilinx-tools.

Yes, but that is still at least 6 months away. This solution is here
now, works, and is quite simple and easy enough to maintain. I really
don't understand your negativity of this patch, are you expecting we
wait until Xilinx actually solves the problem? or do you dislike this
patch just because it simply doesn't implement it in the way Xilinx
wants?

>
>>
>> I have always been interested in having HSI available for use within
>> Yocto/OE/meta-xilinx. The biggest problem has always been that HSI is
>> tied to the Xilinx tools which is a really hefty dependency (and the
>> implied issues with licensing, EULA, support, platform compatibility,
>> version-ing, etc. that come with it) for what is a relatively simple
>> task (comparatively to generated bitstreams). Maybe this is something
>> Xilinx has a solution for? standalone distribution or open-source HSI?
>> definitely would make it considerably easier for project like Yocto/OE
>> and others to allow for tool automation.
>>
> I think as we evolve providing more features to our customers, there will be
> licensing issues (EULA etc). Unfortunately, this will become unavoidable.

Not sure what to make of that, but doesn't sound very open source friendly. :(

Regards,
Nathan

>
> Thanks
> Manju