[REBOL] Re: [BUG?] read-io & write-io or Wait or is TCL better?
From: g:santilli:tiscalinet:it at: 7-Aug-2003 15:39
Hi Petr,
On Thursday, August 7, 2003, 1:19:54 PM, you wrote:
PK> OK, that is just presumption. Novice user will not know that ... we are
They should. I think it is clearly stated in the docs that they
are lowlevel. If it isn't, then this is a bug.
PK> can see repeated buggy aproach of programmers, we should try to avoid
PK> that - either putting it in the doc, or to change behavior. See below ...
In this case, is the documentation that needs to explain clearly
what the purpose of these functions is. I don't see why they would
need to be changed, considering that they are not even meant to be
used by a "novice user" as you say. :) (They should be avoided by
the expert user too, because REBOL offers a better way to do the
same thing. You have to have a very good reason to use them.. :)
PK> Why should read-io "append" to buffer?
Because that could be exactly what you need. And while this
behavior does not cause any problem to someone that does not need
it (you just provide an empty buffer), the contrary is not true:
if you wanted it to append (because the first packet is not enough
for you to process, for example) and it cleared the buffer you
would be forced to work around it (and at least you'd need to copy
your data, which could be undesirable if you have to copy it again
later while or after parsing).
PK> I give up ... so we will see new users frustrated each time. They will
PK> loose hours of struggling with the code, no matter what me or you think
PK> is the correct aproach ...
New users just need correct documentation. Or, better, to avoid
this kind of "unrebolish" functions. ;-)
PK> You could use another series for its further storage ... :-)
REBOL is fast because you can write efficient programs with it.
Let's not break this rule. ;-)
Regards,
Gabriele.
--
Gabriele Santilli <[g--santilli--tiscalinet--it]> -- REBOL Programmer
Amiga Group Italia sez. L'Aquila --- SOON: http://www.rebol.it/