On Friday 09 June 2006 19:21, Geoffrey Young wrote:
> > This is said in the description of pnotes:
> >
> > $hash_ref = $r->pnotes();
> > ...
> > if no arguments are passed, a hash reference is returned, which can
> > then be directly accessed without going through the "pnotes()" interface.
> >
> > Since a hash reference is returned it is clear that it is accessed as
> > pnotes->{key}.
>
> I'm not doubting the interface exists. I'm saying that it's not in use
> in the wild nearly as often as the method call.
Yes, I was using it too until it has bitten me, ;-)
> > I think the behavior of $r->pnotes(key=>value) is buggy not because I
> > want something special. I want it to behave simply like an ordinary perl
> > hash.
> >
> > Further I really think it is buggy because it leads to very difficult
> > traceable bugs in applications using it. The docs says:
> >
> > $r->pnotes(foo => [1..5]);
> > $val = $r->pnotes("foo");
> >
> > If this example is changed into:
> >
> > $var=[1..5];
> > $r->pnotes(foo => $var);
> >
> > $var=[’a’..’c’]; # this changes the pnote behind the scene
> >
> > $val = $r->pnotes("foo");
> >
> > What would you expect $val to be? [1..5] or [’a’..’c’]?
> >
> > I think every new programmer and even almost all experienced mod_perl
> > users would say it is [1..5].
>
> but this has nothing to do with it, really - we're talking about
> changing the way $r->pnotes(key => value) has historically behaved for,
> what, 8 years? you can't just do this on users and introduce wickedly
> difficult bugs to track down without some serious consideration. well,
> you can do whatever you want with your own code, but mod_perl as a
> project has an obligation to its established userbase to not introduce
> pain on purpose, or at least without due warning (such as would come
> from a major version bump).
I understand.
You can look at it in two ways.
1) no matter what, it has been this way for 8 years. So don't touch it!
But since the behavior is really weird it must be described and thoroughly
explained (as I have tried to do this morning).
2) it is a long surviving bug.
Again, because the behavior is weird I think there is a certain amount of
applications out there using this feature that work only by accident. There
is certainly a certain amount of applications using this feature
deliberately. But if a program relies on variables changing by itself behind
the scene it is in my opinion not maintainable and belongs rather to the
obfuscated perl contest.
I think, people that got bitten by this bug simply did not complain and
changed their code more or less randomly unless it had worked somehow. Simply
introducing a new variable $var2=[’a’..’c’] would have cured the problem.
But I understand that such a change cannot be done without due warning. We all
remember well the complains after 2.0.0-rc5 or so was released.
We could document the current behavior of $r->pnotes(key=>value) and mark it
as to be changed in a future release. How about that?
Torsten
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