I was about to send this as a new thread but it suits here:
Worst thing about an offline weekend is having to go throught 200 mails in
monday ( on monday ? at monday ? preposition problems, help !!!).
What I'm going to say has already been said in the past ( as many other
discussions that come and go from time to time ) but, come to think of it, there
are not that many different things to discuss ( support for X browser,
performance, when is bug Y going to be fixed.... ).
I remember one year ago we were concerned about performance and code structure.
It was a long discussion but finally we agreed to keep the code as it was, make
it work first and then work on the code. I know there are still things to solve,
we've got NS6 bugs and Mac issues, but the recent performance/structure concerns
make me think that maybe now it is the time.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not for starting from scratch again. We've got very good
crossbrowsing support ( not 100%, but as good as it gets ) and the API's
interface is pretty stable. Users don't complain about how the API is used but
about how it performs ( speed / size ). Besides, progress on browser X support
can be made at the same time the structure is re-defined.
However, this won't work if we start discussing what's a DynLayer and what does
it do. Regardless of the structure we come up with, we final user will get
DynLayers and DynDocuments and eventListeners. Same thing, different internal
structure. Nobody will tolerate having to learn again how does this work.
They'll get fed up. Instead, we have a user interface we want to reach ( same
we've got now, a list of objects each having a list of methods and properties )
and we should foccuse on what do we place BELOW this structure. And do it both
without rushing and without impatience. Just do it.
I haven't said anything new but I had to say it anyway. I'll think of it myself:
I've had to read the code these days. I used to look at it as crossbrowser code
and so I only cared about it working. But now it does work and I'm starting to
look at it as 'code' and I see so many things that could be improved.
Is there any way to have a master plan document where people can contribute
ideas and don't get lost as easily as they get in the mail lists ?
-------
- "I've saying this for weeks / months !" --
I know.
- "Oh no, not again !!! Not a new version"
I know as well
- "Why don't you support NS6 first ?"
I'm afraid the code structure is already being stretched too much. I ought to
find myself confortable doing my debugging and looking for bugs. Now there are
too many places to look at and too many 'patchy' code around. When you've solved
lots of browser issues by adding if (is.X) statements the code degrades. Now we
have a solid browser-specific base ( the current code ) from were we can extract
what we need to do and the issues we need to take into account. We can build new
code that reads better, works better and faster and does the same, because now
we now what needs to be done. One year ago we didn't.
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