Next message: Mike Depot: "Re: Imager-0.38pre9 Released."
On Fri, 18 May 2001, Mike Depot wrote:
> Before this goes public on CPAN, I was wondering if you would consider doing
> a named parameter cleanup?
>
> I know that Color is at least one example of where this could be improved...
>
> Currently the Color constructor can take parameters in the following ways
> (from docs):
> $color = Imager::Color->new($red, $green, $blue);
> $color = Imager::Color->new($red, $green, $blue, $alpha);
> $color = Imager::Color->new("#C0C0FF");
>
> What if I want to pass in an html color spec with an alpha channel?
>
> The sample for the docs above might become:
> $color = Imager::Color->new(-red=>$red, -green=>$green, -blue=>$blue);
>
> $color =
> Imager::Color->new(-red=>$red, -green=>$green, -blue=>$blue, -alpha=>$alpha)
> ;
> $color = Imager::Color->new(-htmlcolor=>"#C0C0FF");
>
> Only now I can pass an html spec and alpha:
> $color = Imager::Color->new(-htmlcolor=>"#C0C0FF",-alpha=>$alpha);
>
> It would be nice to have all the public functions use named parameters for
> consistency rather than some with and some without. It might also make
> reverse compatibility less of a problem once you go public on CPAN and later
> add to this module.
Would you object to Imager::Color accepting both type of interface?
We only get the problem of distinguishing between:
$c = Imager::Color->new(red=>100, green=>0, blue=>255, alpha=>128);
and:
$c = Imager::Color->new('red'); # lookup in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt?
though this shouldn't be a big deal (if we ever happen to support the
second interface).
We could distinuguish between the 2 by requiring the '-', but then we'd
have to rework all the existing named parameter code for consistency.
In any case I can't see it going into 0.38, since the idea at the moment
is to get a stable CPAN release out, and then start fiddling again.
Whether it goes in at all is of course up to Addi.
> It will break some existing code, but better now that after it goes to CPAN.
> Does anyone else think this is worth doing? Is it worth it for you to
> change some of your code to improve the interface? If so, voice your
> opinion now, because once it goes to CPAN, it will be much harder to justify
> changes!
The existing interface is used in the version currently on CPAN, this
isn't really a valid argument.
Future additions to the interface are likely to use named parameters.
Tony
