On Mar 22, 2005, at 10:34 PM, Dar Scott wrote:
As long as we have the external interface we have now, I'd rather 'start using' a library that uses an external. The library can do things that don't need to be done in an external and can act as the sugar-coating glue to the external.
Dar
I usually go even further and create proxy functions that wrap around third party transcript libs. I always did that, but it was since my last talk with Trevor that I thought that this might be a good tip for the rest of the community.
Wherever I start using a lib made by a third party, I create a wrapper transcript lib arround it, in the case of Trevor libDatabase, I created a proxyLibDatabase that wrapped around Trevor libs. Why do this? Well, if Trevor changes anything in his API, my app will not break, I just need to change the proxy lib to match the current API. This was speacially usefull now for Trevor is indeed changing the API in a very sane way, but I have a software with hundreds (thousands?) lines rellying in the old API, with this proxy setup, I can update the lib and yet all my code will continue working.
This "syntatic sugar" things are a real mental health saver. I have here proxy libs for Shao Sean email stuff, for Trevor Database Stuff and lot's of others. I even went further and build proxy libs for my libs... I know it sounds paranoic but, hell, I am paranoid sometimes. When I first tweeked libCGI to add stuff from revHTTPd, I created a proxy lib glueing them, when I rewrote revHTTPd, I changed all the API, it was a complete rewrite. My tweeked libCGI continue to working, I just patched the glue lib and it's running better now and more secure and faster and it's smaller.... :D
Andre
-- Andre Alves Garzia 2004 Soap Dog Studios - BRAZIL http://studio.soapdog.org
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