[PD] external loading suggestion

[guenter geiger]

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004, Krzysztof Czaja wrote:
> hi Guenter,
>
> I doubt publishing unambiguous patches would be any easier with
> filesystem-based extern hierarchies, unless:
>
> 1. the loader is changed (currently, having a default prepend in
> extra, and another version of prepend in extra/evenbetter, the
> clash between [prepend], and [evenbetter/prepend] remains, because
> if the latter is created first, it will register the plain
> "prepend" name as well);
>
> 2. the -path option is either banned, or stored with the patch;
>
> 3. using libraries is banned.
>
> While (1) is probably doable, (2) and (3) seem not.
>
> Anyway, I think, its easier to ask developers for renaming all but
> one of each of the equivocal classes (e.g. by adding an explicit,
> obligatory prefix), instead of 1. asking developers for never
> including potentially clashing classes in a library, and 2. asking
> maintainers for placing all potentially clashing externs in
> separate subdirectories, and 3. asking users to always prepend
> subdir name to any potentially ambiguous object name in any
> published patch.

Yes, for sure. It doesn't make sense to discuss about the problems of
the namespace system, when we agree that it might be better to not
to have to use it.

> Never using extern hierarchies, we get an extra bonus of always
> being able to safely resolve abstraction names against potentially
> shadowing class names, by placing all abstractions a level down
> relative to the main patch's directory, and releasing the whole
> bundle as a tarball.

Hmm, I think I do not fully understand how this helps. You mean instead
of using extern hierarchies you use abstraction hierarchies ?
What is the difference ?

Guenter


>
> Krzysztof
>
> guenter geiger wrote:
> ...
> > This actually means that we have a namespace system implemented, we just
> > have to use it.
>