[saga-rg] Fwd (schuett at zib.de): Re: SAGA Strawman API

[Andre Merzky]

Hi Thorsten, 

Quoting [Thorsten Schuett] (May 21 2005):
> 
> On Friday 20 May 2005 19:18, Andre Merzky wrote:
> > Q: Why does the package NameSpace need a interface NSDir?
> >    Shouldn't that be named Directory?
> >
> > A: It WAS named directore before, but we thought Dir to be,
> >    well, shorter, w/o loosing meaning.  Hmm, I prefer Dir
> >    for beeing shorter, but have no strong opniion about it.
> >    Others?
> NS is redundant and the meaning of Directory is more obvious than Dir.

We are using Directory for the NSDir incarnation of a
physical file space already.  For one that is probably the
most common used context for directory.  Also, the
alternative would be PhysicalDirectory or PhysicalDir - both
quite long.

However, I see your point.  Maybe we should rename it to
'Container' in the NameSpace package.  Naming - the
bottomless pit... *sigh* ;-)


> > Q: Flags are strange: I could create a flagg array with both
> >    'Create' and 'NoCreate'.  Well, thats would give an
> >    exception, but thats something which could be catched by
> >    the compiler.  You could leave out the NoXXX flags, and
> >    change the flags to set<openFlags>.  the there are no double
> >    flags.  And if you go for numeric values, you could do
> >    the usual bit arithmetik thingie...
> >
> > A: I agree.  I can't for sure remember the rationale for the
> >    current notation -- but I think we left that to the
> >    language binding.  So, in C we would do what you suggest.
> Actually, you can't do the bit thingie in C. If you specify numerical values 
> for the different flags, all bindings have to follow this specification.

Good point - we should fix that then I guess...


> > Q: Interface Attributes: strange name, isn't that rather a
> >    description or such?  removeAttribute is not fleshed out.
> >    You can't have multiple values for one key - a pity.
> >
> > A: Hmm, maybe we didn't transport the idea well enough.
> >    Think physical files: attributes would be for example:
> >    file size, file type, last mod time, owner, ACL etc.
> >    You don't have two values for size.  If you have more
> >    than one item to one key (acl), you have vector
> >    attributes for these.
> Ok, my fault. You can have multiple values for one key using the 
> xxxVectorAttribute-Calls.
> 
> Regarding the name of the interface: I associate with "Attribute" one 
> Key-Value-Pair but your interface represents a set of attributes. Thatswhy I 
> think that the name is strange.

I see - would be more AttributeSet.  But I guess we can
leave the name - just have to make the idea more obvious.

Thanks, 

  Andre.


> Thorsten



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