Re: [Sbcl-devel] POSyuch interfacing

[Mario M. <mo...@ig...>]

Nikodemus Siivola <nik...@ra...> writes:
> So, I submit that
> 
>  (1) No non-masochist would use the buffer-argument to readlink
>      given the possibility to drop it and have the system
>      do "the right thing".
> 
>  (2) The interface for such cases is non-obvious, so documentation
>      beyond the man-pages is really needed. For some functions
>      it can just punt and refer to the man-page, thankfully.
> 
>  (3) Readlink isn't a unique case. POSIX readdir is another example
>      with a convoluted interface, albeit in a different way.
> 
> Hence, I'm wondering if it might not make more sense after all to
> follow the POSIX-interfaces only when they are reasonably sane, and do
> something less painfull in other cases -- and document this for every
> function.
> 
> I'm willing to claim that for the overwhelming majority of cases the
> sane interface is rather obvious. There will be cases where it isn't,
> but that happens with the current policy as well (at least if you
> count readlink as such a case.

How about having two functions? One that is just the raw ffi
interface, and one that is the sane version? Just put them in
different packages - problem gone. It might be a good idea anyway,
since users might disagree with your wrapping policy for whatever
reason.

Another posibility is to use
POSIX:|readdir|
for the original one, and
POSIX:READDIR
for the nice one.