The only thing that puzzles me about this thread is that it seems to be leaning towards the position that says;well, Apache::Registry started out as a mod_cgi emulation layer, trying to speed up legacy mod_cgi scripts without alteration. personally, I think that concept is flawed because we all know that many legacy CGI scripts are poorly written, so you need take special measure to not fall into the numerous documented Registry traps. not to mention that Registry doesn't handle HEAD requests properly (in 1.0), if you read POST data elsewhere you're SOL in your CGI script, etc. but, ok, say you have your CGI emulation layer - that's one facet of Registry.
If the developer just does straight out weird stuff and messes with $r->status in a cgi-script and expects it to work with Apache::Registry (which as far as I understand is a cgi emulation layer), we will accommodate them. However, if the s/he just expects Apache::Registry to behave like it mod_cgi (except faster, more brilliant, etc :)) then they will be disappointed. I am probably just fixated over my current work and can't see the proverbial forest. Can somebody explain this for me?
however, Registry also acts as a dispatch mechansim for people wanting to use the mod_perl API without writing separate handlers for each bit of functionality - since you get $r passed in automatically, or can retrieve it via Apache->request on your own, you are fully free to use Registry this way and many people do. fiddling with $r->status is _only_ possible when Registry is used in this way - there is no mod_cgi equivalent way to set that part of the request record (that I know about, anyway :) for people who want to use the mod_perl API to, say, return REDIRECT, there needs to be some mechanism to allow them to do so, and the $r->status hack has traditionally served this purpose.
(one of) my points before was that with 2.0 and the Cooker idea, we really can (and ought to) have two versions of Registry to accomodate these two needs - people who just want faster mod_cgi (and Registry returns OK or SERVER_ERROR) and people who want the mod_perl API (and Registry returns the script return code). separating out the two classes of users will probably make the Registry logic much easier and cleaner.
just my $0.02.
--Geoff
