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

On Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 12:27:12PM +1030, Rusty Russell wrote:
> "Michael S. Tsirkin" <> writes:
> > On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 04:17:16PM +1030, Rusty Russell wrote:
> >> '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."?
> >
> > I agree. But I prefer "similar to" rather than "like" which seems
> > a bit weaker to me: we don't promise that devices
> > are exactly like physical devices.
> 
> The phrase "look like" is equivalent to "appears similar to", only it
> uses fewer characters, which is why I prefer it.  Brevity is [...] wit.
> 
> >> 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.
> >
> > Still does not clarify what "This" means in the second sentence.
> > document? physical devices?
> > That's why I wrote "This similarity".
> 
> Ah, sorry for being obtuse.
> 
> Here's the diff now.
> 
> Cheers,
> Rusty.


Acked-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <>


> diff --git a/abstract.tex b/abstract.tex
> index b42a0b6..186fb81 100644
> --- a/abstract.tex
> +++ b/abstract.tex
> @@ -1,7 +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
> +document treats them as such. This similarity allows the guest to use standard
>  drivers and discovery mechanisms.
>  
>  The purpose of virtio and this specification is that virtual
> diff --git a/introduction.tex b/introduction.tex
> index 5d57f78..98e1e0d 100644
> --- a/introduction.tex
> +++ b/introduction.tex
> @@ -13,14 +13,14 @@ inter-guest communication) requires copying.
>  }
>  
>    Efficient: Virtio devices consist of rings of descriptors
> -  for input and output, which are neatly separated to avoid cache
> +  for both input and output, which are neatly separated to avoid cache
>    effects from both driver and device writing to the same cache
>    lines.
>  
>    Standard: Virtio makes no assumptions about the environment in which
>    it operates, beyond supporting the bus attaching the device.  Virtio
>    devices are implemented over PCI and other buses, and earlier drafts
> -  been implemented on other buses not included in this spec.
> +  have been implemented on other buses not included in this specification.
>  \footnote{The Linux implementation further separates the PCI virtio code
>  from the specific virtio drivers: these drivers are shared with
>  the non-PCI implementations (currently lguest and S/390).