Re: [htdig-dev] server_wait_time directive, tab spacing in code

[Gilles D. <gr...@sc...>]

According to Gabriele Bartolini:
> Ciao guys,
> 
>     <done> :-P
> 
>     Now after we reach the maximum number of requests per connection we 
> wait for the exact number of seconds specified by server_wait_time.
> 
>     Give it a look, please.

OK, the logic in Retriever.cc looks good to me, but I haven't actually
tested it.

I have a question, though.  How does the information about the value
of max_connection_requests get communicated from the Retriever class
to the HtHTTP class, or perhaps more specifically, when/where does
the connection get explicitly closed when Retriever reaches the number
of requests allowed for one connection.  I don't see it in the code.
I imagine that when there's more than one server being indexed, there's
an implicit request to close the connection because you're going from
one server to another.  What about if there's only one server, though?
The way I see it, if there's only one server and no specified delay,
the Retriever class will just make one request after another without
ever closing the connection.  Am I missing something, or have I spotted
a problem?

On another note, I did a cvs diff to see exactly what you changed to
Retriever.cc.  Apart from the one-line code change, and the addition of
about 6 or 7 lines of comments, I noticed changes to the indentation
of a few dozen lines of code.  When I look at the file in the editor,
I can't seem to figure out what tab spacing I should be using to get the
code properly indented.  Some parts make sense with a tab spacing of 8
(the default), while some, but not all of the changed lines seem better
at a tab spacing of 4.  No one tab spacing value seems to work for the
whole file.  So, what tab spacing do you use in your editor?

To put the question to the whole list of developers, what do all of you
feel we should standardize on?  My own preference is 8, because that seems
to be the most widely used standard, and what most of the code seems to
be tabbed at right now*.  However, I'll go with the flow if most of you
prefer something else.  I feel we really must pick a standard and stick
with it, though, because this seemingly random indetation that the code
is slowly but surely taking on is making it extremely hard to read and
walk through.  I think manual code walkthroughs are a powerful way of
finding bugs, and anything that hinders this process will be a real
detriment to the maintainability of the code.  So, what's it going to be?

* I should point out the difference between tab spacing and indent
spacing.  Tab spacing is the amount of columns between each tab stop,
so that a single tab character (0x09) at one tab stop advances the
cursor by that specified amount of spacing.  Indent spacing, on the
other hand, is the amount by which each level of nesting is indented.
Most of the htdig code seems to be set up with tab spacing of 8 and
indent spacing of 4, so that alternating levels of identation require
either a tab or 4 spaces.  There are some variations on this, though.
E.g. Geoff's code seems to use indent spacing of 2, but with an extra
level of indentation for braces.  Consistency in indent spacing would be
desirable, but not absolutely necessary, while consistent tab spacing is
much more important, otherwise the indentation can get (and has gotten)
terribly messed up and difficult to follow.

-- 
Gilles R. Detillieux              E-mail: <gr...@sc...>
Spinal Cord Research Centre       WWW:    http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/
Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba  Winnipeg, MB  R3E 3J7  (Canada)