Re: GIO API review

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Hi,

Martyn Russell wrote:
> I don't really see the need for adding symbols to the library to
> represent 0. If there is only one "flag" in each of these that matters,
> doesn't it make more sense to just have a boolean?

Flags are almost always preferable to booleans, compare -

 gtk_box_pack_start(box, child, TRUE, FALSE, 0)

 gtk_box_pack_start(box, child, GTK_PACK_EXPAND, 0)

 g_file_monitor_file(file, TRUE, NULL);

 g_file_monitor_file(file, G_FILE_MONITOR_FLAGS_MONITOR_MOUNTS, NULL);

Boolean versions require referring to docs in order to read the code.

Of course if the function name identifies the boolean, it's different:

 gtk_widget_set_sensitive(widget, TRUE)

is fine.

Flags are also extensible, of course, while a boolean is not.

Havoc