Re: [Openfx-developer] 1.0RC8

[Matthias M. <wo...@d2...>]

On Sat, 2004-06-26 at 23:23, Kimball Thurston wrote:
> Also, not that I want to change it (well maybe, depending on the answer), but 
> can someone remind me why we chose to use strings for the actions coming into 
> the plugin entry point as opposed to a good set of integers?

When looking at the communication between your plugin an your host, and
you get an unknown ID, what do you prefer:
"kNukeExtMultithreadEachScanline" or "16745"

The reason for using strings, IIRC, is to provide an easy way to expand
and add more arguments and actions without the need of coordinating
numbers.

If you use int's, it is only a matter of days until two different
developers will use the same number for different extensions, which will
lead to confusion and later certain insanity. I bet ya that '42' will be
taken within a week. With strings, just start the string with the name
of your application/company/mothers maiden name and you can be pretty
sure that it'll be unique.

Also, it is really easy to output plugin communication logs, even if you
don't know the meaning of that particular value, but the string will
give you an idea.