Re: [xmlvm-dev] My Java iOS API feedback

[Panayotis K. <pan...@pa...>]

On 10 Οκτ 2011, at 7:25 π.μ., Arno Puder wrote:

> 
> first of all: very nice work! I like the JavaDoc that makes it easy to 
> correlate the Objective-C API with the Java counterpart.
> 
> A few things:
> 
> (1) I would like to move everything to the namespace org.xmlvm.ios.*. I 
> wanted to do that for a long time but with the new API existing apps 
> need to be changed anyways.

I wanted to do that too, but I didn't want to touch this subject :)


> 
> (2) All classes should have the @XMLVMSkeletonOnly annotation. Perhaps 
> add a command line argument that triggers the generation of this annotation.

No problem


> (3) I wonder if we should address the question of optional methods in 
> Objective-C protocols again. A long time ago we had a longer discussion 
> about this topic. Right now you map a protocol to a Java interface, 
> making all its methods mandatory.

I am all ears.
Do you think it would be better to produce XML files which could be parsed and create the actual API?
Thus you can post-process whatever you want.
The procedure though will be much more complicated than what it is now.


> (4) The parser tool should use more "meta knowledge" to generate better 
> Java API. This should be added to advisor.xml. A couple of examples:
> 
>   - UIView.getSubviews() should return List<UIView>, not just List

There is already an API for that in advisor.xml
In the reports there is also a list of methods that reflect this problem.
Well, someone has to write it.

My idea is to have an internal "advisor.xml" which will deal with all basic non-apple related stuff, and have an external XML at runtime which will live in XMLVM repository and deal with all specific issues.
Of course, this means that all these details should be handled after the tool has been committed to the XMLVM repository.



>   - As Aaron pointed out, const char* should be mapped to
>     java.lang.String where appropriate.

I disagree here, and I explained the reasons in the other email.


>   - UIImage.writeToSavedPhotosAlbum(): the completionTarget and
>     completionSelector should be combined to a Runnable.

or use NSSelector instead?
This is a topic that I didn't want to touch yet, until we have a clear agreement.