Re: [xml] Re: xml digest, Vol 1 #1251 - 13 msgs

[John Fleck <jfleck inkstain net>]

On Sat, 2004-01-31 at 03:56, David Tolpin wrote:
> It normally happens when the name of an API function is wrong.
> xmlCleanupParser is the wrong name; and nobody to blame besides the
> designer of the API.
>
> It does not clean up the parser; it clean ups the parser library;
>
> xmlCleanupParserLibrary 
>
> would not cause confusion; or, at least, it would cause it much less
> frequently.
>
> If there is a frequent error, then not a list of frequent errors must
> be created, but the design flaw must be fixed to eliminate the cause
> of frequent errors.

I believe that the API documentation is quite clear on the function's
behavior, and that it is unreasonable to ask that API compatibility be
broken to help out people who do not read the documentation.

I agree that it is not the best name, but breaking API compatibility is
simply not an option. Encouraging users to read the documentation, and
finding ways to help enable that, is a much better option.

Cheers,
John