Re: [Webmacro-devel] Voting on the ContextTool issue?

[Marc P. <ma...@an...>]

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 01:26:56 -0700, Brian Goetz <br...@qu...> wrote:

>> Guys how about we get a vote going on the ContextTool issue.
>
> WAY premature.

Why? We need to get consensus on what direction the changes should take.

>> Sure we need context-aware template variables, but this should probably 
>> be done another way - i.e. in Context.put we do:
>>
>> if (o instanceof ContextAware)
>> ((ContextAware)o).init( this);
>
> No, this is making everyone pay for a feature that only .01% of
> variables will use.
>
>> Either way, ContextTools seem unnecessary.
>
> The primary benefit to context tools is that they are _automatically_
> available.  This seems a good thing.

Not in all respects, and we know already that two of the developers 
disagree with you on this :-)

Well why don't we have a vote on this to see what other developers actually 
think. We set the case out for them and against them and let people decide. 
Otherwise we may be making code changes that are not necessary, wasting 
everybody's time.

As I see it there is one initial issue:

1) Do we keep ContextTools or get rid of them

Then based on that decision we look at:

2) The possibility of providing a "destroy mechanism" for context variables 
and tools if CTs survive the first vote, or just eliminating this concept 
and force the application to deal with it.

3) The possibility of providing a reference to the Context to context 
variables (especially if CTs do not survive vote 1).

Then after 2 and 3 are decided, we can work on the implementation scheme to 
use for each.

Surely this is a slightly more organised way to go about things, which 
ensures that everybody has a chance to express their views?


Marc

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Marc Palmer
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