Re: Using Web IDL enums instead of numeric constants

Den 2012-09-25 00:58:33 skrev Chris Rogers <crogers@google.com>:

> 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.

WebGL is not really a "webby" API, so I don't think that it serves as a  
good reference for Web APIs. After all, it's a straight port of OpenGL,  
which in turn is a C API designed in the 90's. On the other hand (OT) it  
has its merits when it comes to architecture (e.g. its paradigms that  
support massively parallel implementations).


-- 
Marcus Geelnard
Core Graphics Developer
Opera Software ASA

Received on Tuesday, 25 September 2012 07:42:55 UTC