Re: [Webmacro-devel] ContextTool replacement and thread-safety

[Brian G. <br...@qu...>]

Never thought I'd say it, but I think I agree with everything Lane says here :)

Not 100% sure of the naming, but the concepts make perfect sense to me and 
should make everyone happy (if I understand their concerns.)

>1) Governing principle 1: Existing WM apps which use a context tool will 
>not break in the new 2.0 distro. I think we owe that to our user base. 
>There are a lot of folks who use $Form, $Request, etc, etc. out of the box.

+1 -- total agreement.

>2) Governing principle 2: New WM apps and architects can completely 
>suppress the Context Tool as magic through one directive in 
>WebMacro.properties: EnableContextToolLoading=false. In WebMacro.defaults 
>it is true by default.

+1 on concept; naming to be hashed out later.  We might want to support a 
list of magic thingie loaders, of which context tools will be 
one.  Something that loads default macros, functions, or directives might 
be another.

>3) Alternative context tool plug-in types can be plugged into the context 
>by a tool loader different than the default supplied in the 2.0 distro. 
>The default tool loader will be refactored to conform to an interface, 
>AutoContextLoader. Any "architect" can replace this default tool loader 
>with his own loader to add "magic" objects to the context by implementing 
>AutoContextLoader. Per the existing logic,  on a ref to a null variable in 
>Context.get(),  if (EnableContextToolLoading==TRUE), the loader's 
>interface will be invoked with the reference to the broker to locate the 
>supporting object. AutoContextLoaderImpl: will be the property name.

+1 on concept; naming to be hashed out later.

>5) The Context Tool can be documented as a) a convenience with some 
>standard tools for the entry level WM app, b) easily disabled, or c) 
>pluggable by an architect seeking tight integration with default tools as 
>an elective feature of WebMacro.

+1



--
Brian Goetz
Quiotix Corporation
br...@qu...           Tel: 650-843-1300            Fax: 650-324-8032

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