boards/mips-malta: remove board.

The mips-malta board is a maintainance burden, has no working UART input and is unobtainable and thus must be removed. 1. Unobtainable board ===================== The mips-malta board is not an off-the-shelf part. A quick web search only show the MIPS website where one is told to "contact sales". I could find it on ebay, used, at €155 and from single seller. Not having access to the board means: a. We cannot maintain it. In fact it could be broken right now. b. Potential RIOT uses have not access to the board either. In other words, it is pointless to run on hardware nobody has. 2. No working UART input ======================== Not all applications need UART input, but that is no excuse for not supporting it: a. Makes development & debugging way harder. b. It is impossible to run interactive tests. b.1. Constrains the rest of the platforms by providing an incentive to not make tests interactive. c. The lack of UART is a witness to the poor quality of the port. I want to stress point (c). If something as basic as a serial port cannot work, how can we expect more complex fucntionality to work. The answer is impossible to know, because of point (1). 3. Maintainance burden ====================== The RIOT project has limited time and human resources which can be better spent. a. Compiling for mips-malta wastes CPU time. b. Blacklisting the board in the test wastes contributor's time. c. Adapting the board's makefile during build system rework takes time and makes the reworks harder. c.1. Add to that that the changes are most of the time not even tested on the board because of (1). Look at the github issues/PRs and you will see it. d. Developers usually stick to the lowest common denominator. Issue (2) sets this denominator unacceptably low. MIPS platform in general ======================== In commits I will address general issues in the MIPS platform and why it should all be removed.
RIOT-OS · Jul 12, 2019 · ee6b6b9 · ee6b6b9
1 parent 6b094a7
commit ee6b6b9
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diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/Makefile b/boards/mips-malta/Makefile
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/Makefile.features b/boards/mips-malta/Makefile.features
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/Makefile.include b/boards/mips-malta/Makefile.include
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/doc.txt b/boards/mips-malta/doc.txt
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/include/board.h b/boards/mips-malta/include/board.h
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/include/periph_conf.h b/boards/mips-malta/include/periph_conf.h
diff --git a/boards/mips-malta/malta.c b/boards/mips-malta/malta.c
diff --git a/examples/gnrc_border_router/Makefile b/examples/gnrc_border_router/Makefile
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := airfy-beacon arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                              weio wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 yunjia-nrf51822 z1
 
 # The following boards do not have an available UART
-BOARD_BLACKLIST += mips-malta pic32-wifire pic32-clicker ruuvitag thingy52
+BOARD_BLACKLIST += pic32-wifire pic32-clicker ruuvitag thingy52
 
 # use ethos (ethernet over serial) for network communication and stdio over
 # UART, but not on native, as native has a tap interface towards the host.

diff --git a/examples/lua_REPL/Makefile b/examples/lua_REPL/Makefile
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := blackpill bluepill calliope-mini cc2650-launchpad \
 
 BOARD_BLACKLIST := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                    arduino-mega2560 arduino-nano arduino-uno \
-                   chronos hifive1 jiminy-mega256rfr2 mega-xplained mips-malta \
+                   chronos hifive1 jiminy-mega256rfr2 mega-xplained \
                    msb-430 msb-430h pic32-clicker pic32-wifire telosb \
                    waspmote-pro wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 z1
 

diff --git a/examples/lua_basic/Makefile b/examples/lua_basic/Makefile
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := blackpill bluepill calliope-mini cc2650-launchpad \
 BOARD_BLACKLIST := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                    arduino-mega2560 arduino-nano \
                    arduino-uno chronos hifive1 jiminy-mega256rfr2 \
-                   mega-xplained mips-malta msb-430 msb-430h pic32-clicker \
+                   mega-xplained msb-430 msb-430h pic32-clicker \
                    pic32-wifire telosb waspmote-pro wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 z1
 
 

diff --git a/tests/driver_dynamixel/Makefile b/tests/driver_dynamixel/Makefile
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo arduino-nano \
 # chronos : USART_1 undeclared
 BOARD_BLACKLIST += chronos
 
-# mips-malta : undefined reference to uart_write
-BOARD_BLACKLIST += mips-malta
-
 USEMODULE += dynamixel
 USEMODULE += shell
 

diff --git a/tests/driver_feetech/Makefile b/tests/driver_feetech/Makefile
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo arduino-nano \
 # chronos : USART_1 undeclared
 BOARD_BLACKLIST += chronos
 
-# mips-malta : undefined reference to uart_write
-BOARD_BLACKLIST += mips-malta
-
 USEMODULE += feetech
 USEMODULE += shell
 

diff --git a/tests/gnrc_ipv6_ext/Makefile b/tests/gnrc_ipv6_ext/Makefile
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                              nucleo-l053r8 stm32f0discovery stm32l0538-disco \
                              telosb thingy52 \
                              waspmote-pro wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 z1
-# chronos, hamilton, mips-malta, and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
-BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton mips-malta ruuvitag
+# chronos, hamilton and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
+BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton ruuvitag
 
 export TAP ?= tap0
 

diff --git a/tests/gnrc_rpl_srh/Makefile b/tests/gnrc_rpl_srh/Makefile
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                              nucleo-l053r8 saml10-xpro saml11-xpro \
                              stm32f0discovery stm32l0538-disco telosb thingy52 \
                              waspmote-pro wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 z1
-# chronos, hamilton mips-malta, and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
-BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton mips-malta ruuvitag
+# chronos, hamilton and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
+BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton ruuvitag
 
 export TAP ?= tap0
 

diff --git a/tests/gnrc_sock_dns/Makefile b/tests/gnrc_sock_dns/Makefile
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                              nucleo-l031k6 stm32f0discovery stm32l0538-disco \
                              thingy52 telosb \
                              waspmote-pro wsn430-v1_3b wsn430-v1_4 z1
-# chronos, hamilton mips-malta, and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
-BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton mips-malta ruuvitag
+# chronos, hamilton and ruuvitag boards don't support ethos
+BOARD_BLACKLIST := chronos hamilton ruuvitag
 
 export TAP ?= tap0
 

diff --git a/tests/pkg_ubasic/Makefile b/tests/pkg_ubasic/Makefile
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ BOARD_BLACKLIST := \
                    hifive1 \
                    jiminy-mega256rfr2 \
                    mega-xplained \
-                   mips-malta \
                    msb-430 \
                    msb-430h \
                    pic32-clicker \

diff --git a/tests/slip/Makefile b/tests/slip/Makefile
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@ BOARD_INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY := arduino-duemilanove arduino-leonardo \
                              nucleo-f303k8 nucleo-f334r8 nucleo-l053r8 \
                              stm32f0discovery stm32l0538-disco waspmote-pro
 
-BOARD_BLACKLIST += mips-malta
-
 USEMODULE += auto_init_gnrc_netif
 USEMODULE += gnrc
 USEMODULE += gnrc_pktdump