I support dropping maps (at least in the default format) in favor of arrays where things actually are sorted lists.
On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 9:32 AM, Daniel Kinzler <[email protected]> wrote: > Hearing these arguments while we are in the process of consolidating the > internal and external representations makes me feel like we actually do want > different serializations: one that contains all the info, including order, and > one that is convenient to use for the most common use cases. > > I suspect that the vast majority of API users does not care about order. I > also > like the option to access things by their ID directly, without iterating over > everything. I'd hate to give that up. > > A serialization option would be a possibility (like we also have > groups/ungrouped mode) - we in fact already have such a mode, it's used for > generating XML output from the API; the XML serialization doesn't like IDs > being > used as keys, it wants lists. We'd just need to expose that setting. > > But then we are back to having different serialization formats for the API and > internal storage/dumps. The internal format would be much saner than it is > now, > and much more similar to the API format, but it would still be different. > > -- daniel > > Am 24.06.2014 09:14, schrieb h: >>> Question 2: Wouldn't it be more convenient to store lists of things in all >>> cases, and have the "map" version just as an optional API switch for users >>> who don't care about order (it could remain the default)? This would help to >>> retrieve order information more easily. >> >> Strong support! As I see it, the mappings are causing real pain since >> these simply do not represent that things are, in fact, stored in >> order. The maps generate a wrong representation which, on the one >> hand, may be more convenient at first glance but, on the other hand, >> is confusing as soon as someone digs deeper into the API because these >> "snaks-order" and "qualifiers-order" hack which got implemented when >> everybody realized that we are missing order adds to complexity big >> time. Personally, I would even drop the mappings completely. Yes, the >> maps allow pretty fast access to values (in particular to users >> inexperienced in dealing with APIs) but be sure that people using the >> API will get along fine without them and Wikibase would have a single, >> clean and more consistent interface. Do not fear the change. :) >> I shall reiterate: STRONG SUPPORT! >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikidata-tech mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-tech >> > > > -- > Daniel Kinzler > Senior Software Developer > > Wikimedia Deutschland > Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. > > _______________________________________________ > Wikidata-tech mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-tech _______________________________________________ Wikidata-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-tech
