Merge lp://staging/~oif-team/evemu/fix-evbit-handling into lp://staging/evemu

Rendering existing bug reports and accumulated data invalid because someone wants a "E:" instead of a "A:" in a report costs much more than it gains. I am disapproving this change.

Oh, I forgot - "E:" is also used in other related contexts (events files), creating a different kind of confusion.

Certainly it can be renamed. However, I fail to see how this invalidates existing bug reports and accumulated data.

This is a real bug that I spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out, and I only figured it out because I had done extensive work with uinput in the past. This isn't just a cosmetic issue.

We can quite easily rename this to something other than "E:". How about "T:" for types?

How about adding the line "The first B: line lists the used event types" to the documentation and be done with it. It solves the real problem, without changing file formats.

And the less time we spend on this non-issue, the less time get wasted.

The documentation isn't enough. A developer should be able to look at a device prop file and figure this out themselves. If we couldn't do this in a backwards compatible way, then documenting the issue might be a reasonable approach. However, the proposed merge keeps all backwards compatibility and fixes things going forward. No more time needs to be spent on the issue if the merge is approved, and I'm unaware of any technical reason not to.

Documentation should be enough. Right now, there are at least two ways to interpret the letter "B:" one is that it means something with bitmask, and the numbers correspond to something. There is nothing documented saying all B:s have to means the same thing, and indeed, they don't. Thus, a change of letters only switches confusion to some other place.

The main reason to not change this is not technical, but a matter of stability. The file format is already in use. This alone makes a request like this branch raise all red flags. When combined with the fact that indeed, the whole issue is just a matter of interpretation, it makes it even more important to say no.

I am disapproving this again, to underline that fact that I really, really, think this is both a silly and harmful change.