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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/THRIFT-2464?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=16733529#comment-16733529
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Randy Abernethy commented on THRIFT-2464:
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I have a different view, it is a feature I use and find elegant and chaos free
!/jira/images/icons/emoticons/smile.png! .
Clearly if you use an implementation type that is incompatible with the
abstract IDL type or protocol interface you will have problems, just like if
you don't eat you will starve, I don't think we need to police this. To your
point, type substitution is not a feature anyone should reach for at the
outset, rather a feature that allows Thrift to easily accommodate needs related
to performance, version changes and customization. Many languages have multiple
IDL-type compatible implementation-types, yet with no specific one being the
fastest/best for all use cases (lists, vectors, ints, boxed ints, hashmaps,
treemaps, dictionaries, counters, etc.). Also new types (especially container
types) can show up over time (v1, v2, v3) making "the best" default hard to
specify. This feature also allows custom types to be implemented. In none of
these cases does the impl complexity leak into Thrift, the Thrift IDL types and
wire serialization are unimpacted.
What is a mess is the implementation we have. We have annotations for "final",
and Java map types then these crazy keyword impls for C++. The cpp_* kws
predate annotations and should have been moved over with the introduction of
annotations.
I also think we should rigorously reject new Thrift IDL types as they break the
world and spawn huge amounts of work throughout the platform (every lib, every
protocol) [I am not a fan of the self referential types we have half
implemented]. In a tool chain used for cross platform compatibility, changing
the IDL type support is the worst thing we can do and should really only happen
when extreme benefits are present. This view makes me that much more interested
in living with the simple and elegant Thrift IDL types yet having the option to
choose or create my own implementations without impacting client or having to
modify Thrift at all.
> Transition cpp_type and cpp_include keywords to compiler annotations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: THRIFT-2464
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/THRIFT-2464
> Project: Thrift
> Issue Type: Improvement
> Components: Compiler (General)
> Affects Versions: 0.9.2
> Environment: C++
> Reporter: Randy Abernethy
> Assignee: Randy Abernethy
> Priority: Minor
>
> The cpp_type and cpp_include keywords provide a useful feature but are
> language specific. In keeping with the trend of moving the interface language
> to a clean cross implementation language abstraction, these two keywords
> should be transitioned to annotations.
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