Re: Using Web IDL enums instead of numeric constants

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Ehsan Akhgari <ehsan.akhgari@gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 12:03 PM, olivier Thereaux <
> olivier.thereaux@bbc.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hi Ehsan,
>>
>>
>> On 21 Sep 2012, at 16:55, Ehsan Akhgari wrote:
>> > Should we consider using Web IDL enums instead of numeric constants for
>> things in the spec which are actually enumerated values?
>>
>> I recall we had an issue about that. Ah, yes:
>> https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=17323
>>
>> The bug is currently closed, my bad as I thought we'd fixed all the
>> IDL-related issues with your recent set of changes. Feel free to reopen it.
>>
>> As for you question, if indeed enums are more expressive and closer to
>> our spec in prose, I see no reason to not use them.
>>
>
> Just to make it clear, it will break the existing implementation in WebKit
> since the API will change to use strings instead of numbers.  Is that OK?
>

If people feel very strongly, we can move away from the numeric constants.
 But WebKit would continue to also support the old syntax during a certain
time so we could transition in an orderly fashion.

As far as what style of constants we should use, I don't have a strong
preference, but would note that WebGL uses numeric constants.

To some extent, it feels like we're moving into bike-shedding territory,
and I'd like to carefully consider how important any name changes really
are.  These name changes *do* take a toll on the developers who already
have invested time in writing production code.

Chris


>
>
> Thanks!
> --
> Ehsan
> <http://ehsanakhgari.org/>
>