Flow integration
Daniel Vainsencher <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.foundation |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
(This is a draft I think we should post to the squeak-dev to generate the main discussion there. If you guys have comments/additional issues to raise...) As I noted before, a few people have requested that the Flow work by Craig be integrated into the base image. This work: - Replaces the primitive interface to sockets and other External Resources - Refactors the stream hierarchy I've had a few concerns that the changes might create too much change all at once, considering that many things use the stream hierarchy. After speaking to Craig about these issue, it seems that (Craig, please correct me if I'm wrong here)- 1. The new streams implement all the old protocols, so that the main compatibility problem should be direct references to the old class names. This is easy to fix incrementally for packages, and fairly quickly for the image itself. 2. The package as it is now can coexist with the existing libraries, making testing quite feasible at low risk. So I guess this move should be pretty easy. Open questions - 1. Should we do it? 2. How do we test to minimize risk? 3. When? 1. Do or not? If people know of any general objections/problems with this code, it's best to put them in the open now. I'm not qualified to answer about the benefits of the new primitive interfaces, I'm quite ignorant in these things. John M has (IIUC) spoken in favor of it. Could we get some more input from the experts? About the stream refactorings, I think several people have used Flow to develop their own applications. Luciano has mentioned that he's used it for several and liked it. More evaluations would be useful here. 2. Testing As to format, Craig has agreed to post these changes on SM in the precise form he'd prefer to issue the proposed updates. As to how to make sure it doesn't cause problems for this or that package or application - that's up to you guys out there that use your sockets for more than reading mail... ideas? 3. When? Probably not in 3.4 (just to keep the release finite and near), but possibly in 3.5. This depends on Craig posting on SM in the proposed format, and mostly on when we get enough testing input. Daniel