Re: [VOTE] Release Chain 1.0

[Vic]

Not to jump all over you, but Chain was there for a year, and I too used 
it in prouduction. Alternative interfaces would mean redesign and maybe 
even problems for current users, it is not backwards compatible.

A key to its power is the Map. I realy think that if you got a chance to 
use it it would come to you.

I too agree that WebContext caries to much info. Also... the point of 
the map is to add what you need. I can think of 100 "Contexts" (Portlet, 
Hessian, Soap, JSF, JMS, Jabber, .... ).
Maybe in the 1.1 release those things are marked for deprecation.

.V
Matt Sgarlata wrote:
Before a 1.0 release, I would like to suggest an alternative Context 
interface.  Sorry, I realize I'm getting to the game a little late ;)  I 
think it is inappropriate for Context to extend from Map, because a 
Context as defined in the Chain package isn't really a Map.  Maps are 
great, but for what the Chain package is trying to do they're probably 
overkill.  One testament to this fact is the incredible difficulty of 
implementing the ServletWebContext class.  Implementing methods like 
entrySet(), keySet(), and values() are a real pain, and the 
implementations are all O(n)... ouch.

Below is my suggested alternative interface.  It's simple by design, to 
make it easy to implement.

public interface Context {
   public String[] getPropertyNames() throws ContextException;
   public Object get(String propertyName) throws ContextException;
   public void set(String propertyName, Object propertyValue)
       throws ContextException;
}
I also am concerned that the ServletWebContext class exposes too much 
information that is specific to the presentation tier.  Even if a 
business object were to depend only on the Context interface, if a 
ServletWebContext was passed in, the business object would be tied to 
HTTP symantics with calls such as 
context.get("sessionScope.myBean.myProperty").  I would recommend a 
context simliar to the one available to the JST: let request attributes 
be a scratchpad and let session and application items be visible so long 
as they aren't blocked by a lower level.

For full javadoc on my ideas behind contexts, please see the 
net.sf.morph.Context class and the net.sf.morph.context.* package.  
Also, take a look at net.sf.morph.context.ServletWebContext.  Here's a 
link to the Morph homepage where you can access the Morph API:
http://www.crystalcognition.com/sgarlatm/morph

I'm not on SourceForge yet but I applied on Friday so hopefully I'll be 
there soon!

Matt
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Cooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 6:01 PM
Subject: [VOTE] Release Chain 1.0

I believe Chain is now sufficiently complete and stable to warrant an 
official 1.0 release. There are no outstanding bug reports, and the 
component is already in use in a number of projects.

The plan is to release HEAD as Commons Chain 1.0 on completion of a 
successful vote. I will be the release manager.

---------------------------------------------------------------
 [ ] +1  I support this release and am willing to help
 [ ] +0  I support this release but am unable to help
 [ ] -0  I do not support this release
 [ ] -1  I do not support this release, and here are my reasons
---------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my own +1.
--
Martin Cooper
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