Dear List, I am getting frustrated: evertime I want to implement a teeny bit of functionality I end up needing/wanting to rewrite the whole thing because "every" function is written with one exact use case in mind and can't be generally used. The code is also littered with annoyances
( my current example: map_obj.getExtent() returns a string of coordinates (just a comma seperated list without) map_obj.getExtentInfo() OTOH returns an Extent object Why would they be named that way? ). Then there's what I mentioned at the devsprint (too many "object"-types that have blurry definitions, too many different callback/events types). Everytime the I encounter something like that, the alternatives are "rewrite" and "code around it" It usually ends up being "code around it" which is, of course, a terrible idea because the next time someone encounters _my_ code it will be even worse and so it builds up. But even if I chose "rewrite", what are the standards I'd be rewriting by, I could make something up on the spot but our general direction is fuzzy (or I haven't grokked it). Spolsky say one should never do it [1] - but I am looking for someone to lock myself in with for a day to try and distill what it is that Mapbender does and then design a proper API on which a rewrite could happen - any volunteers? The iterative approach we are using now to improve the code is not getting anywhere nearly fast enough for me to retain any kind of enthusiasm and - at times - sanity. On a related concept: I am unclear on the status of "Mapbender 3" It's a branch with little activity and no documentation, I am assuming I missed a discussion somwehere, so If someone could fill me in that'd be rad. Regards, Karim [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html _______________________________________________ Mapbender_dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapbender_dev
