[saga-rg] 1.4 version of the spec

[Andre Merzky]

Right, I fixed that now.  BTW, order of vector elements
should be of no impact I guess (would make equals awkward to
use...)

Andre.


Quoting [Graeme Pound] (Mar 01 2006):
> Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:34:21 +0000
> From: Graeme Pound <G.E.POUND at soton.ac.uk>
> To: Andre Merzky <andre at merzky.net>
> CC: SAGA RG <saga-rg at ggf.org>
> Subject: Re: [saga-rg] 1.4 version of the spec
> 
> Andre,
> 
> >> #2 The introspection added to the saga.Attribute interface further 
> >>confuses the issues surrounding vector and "scalar" attributes. There 
> >>are genuine use cases for vector attributes; for example in the 
> >>JobDefintion class.
> >>
> >>However in the strawman the introspection is separated for vector and 
> >>"scalar" attributes, list_attributes() returns a single unified list of 
> >>attribute names, and there is no defined behaviour if a vector attribute 
> >>is requested via get_attribute() or visa versa. This solution is awkward.
> >>
> >>An alternative solution is to allow any attribute to be returned via 
> >>get_attribute() and get_vector_attribute(); this is simple since all 
> >>values are strings, a vector returned by get_attribute() be delimited by 
> >>comas or parentheses. Then a single has_attribute() methods would be 
> >>sufficient, and an additional is_vector() method would be useful.
> >
> >I don't like the dstinction vector/scalar either, it is
> >confusing.  If we would not have the (very valid) use cases... ;-)
> >
> >Problem with the approach you propose is that, whatever
> >delimiter you choose, you'll step on somebodies toes.  I
> >think space limited is kind of useful, or komma, as the
> >result is at easily human readable... - 
> >
> >It might be worth to have both versions:
> >  
> > - separate setters/getters for scalar/vector attribs
> > - scalar attrib with vector getter -> list with one element
> > - vector attrib with scalar getter -> space limited string
> > - scalar attrib with vector setter -> set to space limited string
> > - vector attrib with scalar setter -> set to list with one element
> >Well, I say space limited - but see above, no good idea.
> >
> >is_vector sounds indeed useful, simplifies the inspection.
> 
> The behaviour of the equals() method is also ill-defined when called 
> against a vector attribute. The problem would go away if a delimiter is 
> defined by the strawman for a string representation of vector attributes.
> 
> Graeme
> 
> 
> 



-- 
"So much time, so little to do..."  -- Garfield