Hello everybody, TL;DR: Current docs are a mess because of inconsistent naming of the two APIs (old and new). I propose we call them Classic and Unified and revamp the docs site.
As you know, we have all been laboring in the past years to produce a new API for EFL that presents a unified look (instead of a collection of libraries), and which is described through a high-level language (Eolian) so it is straightforward to write bindings for languages other than C (instead of having to write and maintain manual bindings). This new API is now mature enough that parts of it have been declared stable and will be shipped in this release (1.22) without BETA markers. This means apps can be written using this API without requesting any special BETA access, and they have a certain degree of confidence that they will continue working in future versions of EFL without change. Actually, only the Window class has been stabilized, so no great apps will come out of it, but we're getting there. Unfortunately, we never agreed to any name for this new API (that I am aware of), which makes things hard to document: - The old API is being called Legacy API, but that's confusing because it's the ONLY API apps can currently use. - The new API has been called Interfaces API, but that is confusing because "interface" is a programming term, and they are present in both APIs. - Beta API is also a bad name, because parts of the old API are still beta, and parts of the new API are not beta anymore. - And obviously "old" and "new" are extremely non-future-proof names for an API. What are we going to call the new one? (say "newer", I dare you). THEREFORE, I propose we start calling the old API "*Classic API*" and the new one "*Unified API*". The Unified API presents a unified look of the library, and contains all EFL symbol starting with efl_ or eina_. Conversely, the Classic API is a collection of libraries which have grown organically over the years (hence "Classic") and contains the rest of symbols (evas_, ecore_, edje_, ...) This naming will only affect documentation (website, tutorials, reference guide). No changes in code. It might not seem like a big deal, but the current state of our docs is pretty confusing, and having things properly named and introduced will help newcomers a lot. And we do want newcomers, right? So please share your thoughts about the Classic and Unified names, make other proposals if you wish, and I'll start revamping the docs site. Xavi _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel
