On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:43 AM, David Ashley <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am working on an ooRexx interface to something that is normally > programmed in C. Of course, C uses zero-based indexes for thing like > memory, array positions, etc. My code could be architected to either > carry this forward to the ooRexx interface when it calls the C functions > or it could translate the zero-based numbers to the more user friendly > (and Rexx default) one-based numbering system. This is a good topic and one I have thought about, but I am also of two minds here. In ooDialog, it looks to me that they started out converting the zero-based indexes to one-based, but then did not carry through with that consistently with later code. Some of the earliest basic controls, (combo box, edit, etc.) convert the underlying 0-based indexes to 1-based indexes. Then 'newer' controls (list-view, etc.,) retain the underlying 0-based indexes. That of course is the worst possible approach. Obviously you would want one package to be consistent through out. So, I've thought about, if I could redo the entire package, would it be best to retain the underlying 0-based indexes, or use 1-based indexes through out. The main con to using 1-based indexes for ooDialog, as I see it, is that the MSDN documentation is so much more complete. There is no way that the ooDialog documentation can reproduce all that. So, it would be ideal, I think, for the ooDialog doc to say this is a brief overview, the ultimate documentation is MSDN. Especially with Google and other search tools, it would be much easier for ooDialog programmers to figure out how to use the dialogs and dialog controls from doc and examples on the Internet. Which of course will always use 0-based indexes. The pro of course is that Rexx uses 1-based indexes, so converting the indexes would make things more consistent with Rexx itself. Another problem with converting to 1-based indexes, (which comes back to documentation) in ooDialog is how to be consistent with special values. Often a index of -1 indicates an error, but sometimes not. Do you convert -1 to 0? Do you leave it at -1? There are places where it is hard to be completely consistent, because the Windows API is not always consistent. But, the MSDN documentation, usually documents what is what with respect to indexes. So, in the this area, it would nice to be able to say, whatever MSDN says is correct. You can't do that if you are converting indexes. All in all, I'm not sure which would be best. But, for external packages that provide a way to access and use a well known API, such as the Win32 API, I'm learning towards it would be better to be able to say the well known documentation on the API is the authority. -- Mark Miesfeld ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Oorexx-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oorexx-devel
