Re: Amount of Arguments per Method
Re: Amount of Arguments per Method
- Subject: Re: Amount of Arguments per Method
- From: mmalc Crawford <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:31:11 -0700
On Jun 23, 2009, at 9:14 AM, WT wrote:
On Jun 23, 2009, at 4:57 PM, mmalc Crawford wrote:
On Jun 23, 2009, at 4:05 AM, WT wrote:
Let's start with bug reporting, which is of general relevance to
developers here:
Whether or not it's an actual *error* is immaterial -- it's a
usability issue. It's still considered as a bug.
Not if it's a usability issue to only a very small group of people,
which seems to be the case here.
Wrong.
As far as those people are concerned, it's still a usability issue,
which is considered a bug, and worth reporting. (Here and hereafter
"bug" may mean feature or enhancement request.)
Without reports, we will never know how widespread it is...
Bug reports don't have to be a novel. You could have spent less
time filing a bug report than you have posting messages to this
thread.
Since you're going to one extreme, let me go to the other. What do
you think the result would be if someone filed a request that just
said "add spaces to the documentation" ?
The positive result would be that it would be added to a database of
bugs for consideration for action.
If many people provided feedback along the lines of:
---
Long method declarations and invocations in a single, e.g.
- (id) outputImageProviderFromBufferWithPixelFormat:(NSString*)format
pixelsWide:(NSUInteger)width pixelsHigh:(NSUInteger)height baseAddress:
(const void*)baseAddress bytesPerRow:(NSUInteger)rowBytes
releaseCallback:(QCPlugInBufferReleaseCallback)callback releaseContext:
(void*)context colorSpace:(CGColorSpaceRef)colorSpace shouldColorMatch:
(BOOL)colorMatch
are difficult to parse.
The documentation would be more readable if such code were laid out to
make the relationship between the keywords and arguments more obvious.
To illustrate, one possible format would be:
- (id) outputImageProviderFromBufferWithPixelFormat: (NSString*) format
pixelsWide: (NSUInteger) width
pixelsHigh: (NSUInteger)
height
baseAddress: (const void*)
baseAddress
bytesPerRow: (NSUInteger)
rowBytes
releaseCallback:
(QCPlugInBufferReleaseCallback) callback
releaseContext: (void*) context
colorSpace:
(CGColorSpaceRef) colorSpace
shouldColorMatch: (BOOL) colorMatch
---
then it might be determined that:
(a) The documentation tools should be modified to output method
declarations in a different format;
(b) Guidelines should be changed such that writers are encouraged to
format such code appropriately.
There are a few important subtleties here:
1. This might be a "nice to have" feature, but if it's one that a
sufficiently "large" number of people desire then it's more important,
particularly if the solution can be provided at comparatively low cost.
Of course, we'll only know how many people might like this if they
actually bother to file bugs.
2. There's no need to spend more time on crafting the report than has
been spent in this thread so far -- it doesn't have to be an extensive
treatise.
3. The bug stated the problem but avoided requiring a particular
solution, instead providing an example. When making requests such as
this, it's typically better to describe the problem and perhaps point
in the general direction of a solution rather than require a specific
implementation. Such issues may be considered in a broader context --
there may be several possible remedies to the problems, and the one
chosen may be dependent on other factors.
So to reiterate, the documentation is considered part of "the product".
If you can identify a change that might make you more productive as a
developer, then it's worth reporting as a bug.
The remainder of the message relates to mailing list etiquette -- feel
free to skip it.
** Any responses to this section should be made off-list. **
To address these points generally:
Why is it so baffling? The question is not wanting something to be
changed, but wanting *bad enough* to have something changed.
Because, as has been stated so often, posting messages to a list
will not cause any change.
If you complain about something on a list but don't actually file a
bug report, then you're simply wasting everyone's time.
You're making the unjustified assumption that my original comment
was a complaint intended to cause a change.
It's clearly sufficiently important an issue that you're willing to
bring it to several thousand other people's attention. If it's
important enough for that, it's important enough for a bug report.
Another unjustified assumption. If my intention was to bring this
specific matter to the attention of several thousand people with the
specific intention of effecting change, I would have done it in a
separate thread, not in this thread. As I pointed out above, my
original message was merely a comment.
You would also have better respected others' time.
It's the second time in your message that you subtly accuse me of
wasting your time (and other people's). No one forced you to read my
posts.
I'm not being subtle. It's a fact.
If your message wasn't intended to cause change or otherwise impart
useful information that might help others, then it was simply to
comment in isolation or vent personal frustrations, and you're wasting
others' time.
To understand why this is the case, consider what would happen if each
of the several thousand list members decided every day to send even
just one message along the lines of:
"I like putting two spaces between the name of a class and its
superclass and a colon, like:
MyClass : NSObject
"
"I would like it if Apple used Zapfino for the PDFs"
"My square bracket keys are wearing out"
The list's utility would rapidly diminish...
No-one forced you to read this far, but you did. And that's taken
time. If dealing with messages of no interest or value were actually
zero cost, then (modulo bandwidth) spam would not be considered a
problem.
If it's important enough to require thousands of others to deal with
the message, then it's important enough to file a bug.
If you simply want an outlet for random stream of consciousness for
people who might actually be interested, use Twitter.
So, ease off with the head-chewing.
Please don't misrepresent others' behaviour.
I don't think I did that and I stand by my request. Your "This is
simply baffling" was clearly judgmental, and uncalled for in a
public venue.
"This is baffling" is a statement of a reaction to an issue, not a
judgement of the person, and is certainly not "head-chewing".
Contrast:
"This behaviour puzzles me."
"You're being an idiot."
What *is* uncalled for is the attempt to denigrate an interlocutor by
portraying them as an aggressor.
I know what my intention was, again please desist from
misrepresentation.
And in general, please keep this sort of ad hominem commentary off the
list.
mmalc
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