Re: URI Template experience

* John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org> [2009-05-19 23:35]:
> Simplicity itself is not a sensible goal. Simplicity *for a
> given amount of function* is a sensible goal. A language in
> which the only possible program is a hello-world one will be a
> very simple language, but it doesn't provide much function.

You cannot treat simplicity and functionality as separate in
design. The amount of functionality worth having is co-determined
by the complexity of the result; the degree of simplicity worth
aiming for is co-determined by the usefulness of the result.

> Specifically, template generation is more general than parsing,
> because it goes from rich information to a wire protocol.
> Supporting only the parseable subset of templates means that
> important generation function must be abandoned.

The availability or rich information is precisely the point.
Processing instructions can be included in this rich data in
any number of forms, be that through different API calls for
declaring variables, by passing the template as part of a
data structure with hints, or whatever. At generation time,
all options are open.

Regards,
-- 
Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>

Received on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 03:10:50 UTC