Pete,
World hunger? Gee, did I sound *that* upset? At least it is possible to
envision a cure for the 2D terminology problems. Frankly, I don't spend too
much time worrying about either matter, but, now that you mention it, who's
to say how far-reaching the impact can be of using poor terminology within
what many hope, probably correctly, will be a very influential technology?
As you correctly point out, "plane" is actually the right word for "band",
already meaning pretty much the expected thing in both the popular and
imaging lexicons. What proportion of people would disgree with you? I'd
have to guess a very small one.
How can the period for fixing a couple of small but major stupid things in
a peripheral Java gizmo have ever expired? After only a year, there are
still plenty of mind bends that can be avoided by making some changes. Then
the docs can become a lot easier to write, too. The JDK keeps changing; why
not elements of the 2D project? Maybe, like cooks eating their own food,
the authors of the bad jargon would get back to work if made to explain it
themselves (please pardon the blurriness of metaphor). Internalizing good
jargon is bad enough.
DJ
At 09:03 AM 6/14/99 -0700, you wrote:
>David Janszen wrote:
>
>> A Sun tech writer suggested I use this listserver as the forum for my
>> criticisms of some of the 2D API terminology, indicating that this is how
>> to get the message to the appropriate engineers at Kodak and Sun, but
>after
>> reading a few days worth of postings, I am beginning to doubt this is the
>> right place. Does anyone know how to register my thoughts with the right
>> people?
>
>This is probably as good a place as any, given that the people responsible
>for the Java2D API certainly read this list (though possibly not as
>attentively as usual during JavaOne week....) I think what you're up against
>is the fact that the names you have problems with are embedded in the API
>(i.e. as part of method names), and bad as some of them are, it's
>phenomenally unlikely they're going to be changed at this point. I tend to
>agree that 'sample' is pretty poor - I think it was an attempt to use
>something other than 'component', which is used in the color model realm.
>And 'band' should probably have been 'plane' or something. Certainly from
>reading *just* the JavaDocs for the API, you could get incredibly confused,
>but luckily there are other sources of info that clarify the terminology.
>Then it's just a question of building your internal map from what you're
>familiar with to Java2D.
>
>There was a period, I think, when these terms could have been improved, but
>unfortunately it was about twelve months ago. It's a shame that with a
>relatively complex API like Java2D, most people only have the time to dive
>in to the depth where these things become an issue after it's too late.
>Still as problems go, it's not exactly in the same league as, say, world
>hunger, is it?
>
>Cheers,
>Pete
>
>
>
