To be sure, if we find particular API bad/unclear/misnamed, a change is always easy to justify.
On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 4:37 PM, Mark Hanson <mhan...@pivotal.io> wrote: > To play devil's advocate, > > I have dealt with -1 for years in network development among other places. > In just about every case, it has not been a problem. The only cases I can > think of where it has gotten weird in recent memory are badly designed API > such as the retry attempts because the API should have really been called > attempts... Why is this a big enough problem to invest in? C# a very new > language has added the same -1 behavior, so obviously it does not cause > major problems. While I support separate API for clarity, what justifies > the expense(time and testing)?? One might not call this a technical debt > issue, considering all the other users of this approach. > > Again just playing devil's advocate here. > > Thanks, > Mark > > > > On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 3:26 PM, Anthony Baker <aba...@pivotal.io> wrote: > >> Perfect! >> >> > On Sep 6, 2017, at 3:13 PM, Jacob Barrett <jbarr...@pivotal.io> wrote: >> > >> > And this is where the details are more useful than the abstract. I >> think if >> > we focus more on specific API methods and answer the questions for each >> or >> > those we will spend less time going back and forth on the use of >> sentinel >> > values. >> > >> > X.doSomethingUntil(10s); <- do something, give up after at least 10s >> > X.doSomething(); <- do something, never give up >> > >> > Very clear and no sentinel values. >> > >> > Y.doSomethingWithLimit(10); <- do it 10 times >> > Y.doSomething(); <- do it forever >> > >> > Very clear and no sentinel values. >> > >> > -Jake >> > >> > >> > On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 2:50 PM Anthony Baker <aba...@pivotal.io> wrote: >> > >> >> >> >>> On Sep 6, 2017, at 2:29 PM, Jacob Barrett <jbarr...@pivotal.io> >> wrote: >> >>> >> >>> Ok, I did not find that previous message at all clarifying but I did >> find >> >>> this one clarifying. >> >> >> >> I think the objective is to provide a clear and understandable API. >> >> >> >> IMO, a ReallyBigNumber is not easily readable. Is the user’s intent to >> >> wait XXX time or forever? Why not provide a constant value / enum to >> >> signal intent? >> >> >> >> There are so many usages of “0 as infinity” throughout the internets >> that >> >> I personally don’t find it all that confusing. >> >> >> >> Anthony >> >> >> >> >> >> >
