I'm preparing liblicense for a 0.5 release. There's been a lot of great
work in liblicense done by people who aren't me over the last few months,
and it's (way past) time for that work to see a general release.
I'm inventorying it now to see what else should be done before 0.5. I
came up with an API switch I wanted to make, so I thought I'd ask the list
about it. (NY, this includes you - I haven't asked anyone other than my
head about this.) Be warned: No comments on this mean I'm going to get my
way!
We have some ll_get_* functions, like ll_get_name, ll_get_jurisdiction,
and ll_get_version, and also a general ll_get_attribute() function. I
would like to remove the named ll_get_* functions and require users of the
license to use the ll_get_attribute(license_uri, LL_ATTRIBUTE_URI_PERMITS)
syntax.
Advantages:
* Only one way to do it, and that way to do it extends in an obvious way
to the other
* This is a C library, so people who complain about the syntax can't
really complain - they're already in C
* The addition of
* Making people aware of our constants makes it easier to show them that
they can often re-use these constants in other RDF-exposing libraries.
Impact on speed:
* None: If you use our (e.g.) LL_ATTRIBUTE_URI_PERMITS constant, then we
can do a pointer equailty check instead of a string check, which is
practically free, so there should be no speed loss from switching to this.
Impact on library usability:
* Hardly any: If your text editor has known-word completion, then it's
just as easy to expand arguments to ll_get_attribute as it is to expand
the function name ll_get_name.
Disadvantages:
* Only one: It makes the calls to ll_get_name(uri) etc. look longer. I'm
okay with shortening e.g. LL_ATTRIBUTE_URI_REQUIRES to
LL_ATTRIBUTE_REQUIRES or LL_ATTR_REQUIRES or even LL_REQUIRES.
Your take:
[This space intentionally left blank.]
-- Asheesh.
--
All heiresses are beautiful.
-- John Dryden
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