Rick Matthews writes: > 3. What are the imported (consumed by the project) and exported (exposed by > the project) > interfaces or protocols and their respective stability levels?
Nit: I realize that you're trying to be pithy, but I don't think those are the correct definitions of import and export. An "export" is something that the project under review defines. An "import" is something that is defined by some other project, and the reference should cite that other project. The distinction is important, because defining the interfaces establishes the references, and it's not uncommon to have cases where the producer/consumer relationship works the opposite direction. For example, if you have a plug-in interface, it's usually the case that the consumer of those plug-ins is the one "exporting" (defining) the interface, while the individual plug-ins are "importing" the interface. (For what it's worth, this is why "importing" from an external standard simply makes no sense at all, though project teams seem to try to do that frequently. Except perhaps for special legacy cases, it only makes sense to "import" things that've been defined explicitly elsewhere.) When done right, this allows us to establish which project should be initiating changes and which ones end up being dependent on changes. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
