Re: construct-time properties and constructor

[Tim Janik <timj gtk org>]

On 13 Nov 2001, Havoc Pennington wrote:

> 
> Tim Janik <timj gtk org> writes: 
> > no, i said don't touch the array. that also implies you shouldn't
> > evaluate it, do i _really_ need to make GObjectConstructParam an opaque
> > typedef to stop people from this?
> 
> Anything you don't want people to use should be opaque, or not
> exported from the library, or bracketed in #ifdef SCREW_ME_PLEASE. 

nope, i simply can't agree to this.
there are enough things that simply shouldn't be used by normal apps,
but are required under unusual circumstances (langauge bindings, gui builders,
deskguide), i.e. code that _has_ to deal with internals.

just making things one of:
- opaque, or
- public
is too much black-and-white-painting, it tends to hide things that
have valid, but rare uses.
that's why historically, gtk provided structure defs etc. in the header files
if at all possible.

> Otherwise people _will_ use it. ;-) Been proven many times over.

yep, that's unfortunately right.
but still, i simply don't accept public deafness (i.e. people denying to
read docs) as a sufficient reason to cripple my APIs and won't in the
future either.

(you can redirect your flames to /dev/null. i have been told enough times
already, that i'm too idealistic for this world ;)

> 
> Havoc
> 

---
ciaoTJ