Client API philosophy

[Daniel van Vugt]

We frequently disagree on the measurement criteria :)

Also, IMHO code reviews provide a more structured place for targeted 
discussions. And that helps to focus on facts, with less hand-waiving.


On 10/11/14 12:10, Christopher James Halse Rogers wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Daniel van Vugt
> <daniel.van.vugt at canonical.com> wrote:
>> Definitely controversial; factually false or easily arguable.
>>
>> Sounds like a response to one of my merge proposals. So please put
>> arguments in the code reviews...
>
> It indirectly is, but also in response to some discussion on IRC of one
> of your merge proposals.
>
> I thought it would be valuable to work out what top-level philosophies
> we agree on and discover where we differ. Code reviews make a poor venue
> for this, as they're not as visible and are primarily concerned with the
> concrete code under discussion.
>
> If we disagree on the measurement criteria it's very difficult to reach
> consensus on the code :)
>
>>
>> On 10/11/14 10:48, Christopher James Halse Rogers wrote:
>>> Hey all.
>>>
>>> We're getting into the meaty bit of client API support I thought I'd
>>> write some things about API design philosophy to see if they're
>>> controversial.
>>>
>>> *) An API with lots of functions that do one thing each is simpler than
>>> an API with few functions that do different things depending on other
>>> state.
>>>
>>> *) A function with unclear semantics is harmful
>>>
>>> *) Mir will not have an external reference for window management policy.
>>> Window management semantics will be associated with the API. There is no
>>> equivalent for http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/wm-spec-1.3.html
>>> outside the client API documentation.
>>>
>>> *) The client API should be implementing policy, not mechanism.
>>>
>>> *) Where state transitions are allowed, it should be possible to
>>> transition from one valid state to another valid state without
>>> temporarily being in an invalid state.
>>>
>>> Some thoughts.
>>>
>>>
>>
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>