Re: AppKit source available as reference?
Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- Subject: Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- From: Phillip Mills <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:27:00 -0400
On 6/28/01 2:24 PM, "Jonathan Hendry" <email@hidden> wrote:
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Personally, I'd rather have a well-designed framework than
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one which requires you to look through the source code to
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figure out how to use it.
The two things aren't necessarily opposites. Something may be well
designed, yet inherently complex. A library that doesn't *require* you to
examine the source may be easier to learn that way for some people.
There's a related issue of accuracy of the communication. Documentation is
someone's interpretation in language "A" of information originally expressed
in language "B". Seeing the source removes a layer of potential noise in
the message.
>
I should think a risk of learning from source is that
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you may rely on things that you shouldn't, making it more
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likely your code will break later. On the flipside, making
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source code available might cause Apple to make fewer
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changes to the framework, in order to avoid precisely that
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problem, but slowing advancement of the platform and
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allowing poor designs to become entrenched.
Or, as mentioned in the context of PowerPlant, it can free the framework
developers to make changes with the knowledge that the "documentation"
(source) is completely synchronized with the behavior.