Use of static var in MapScript mapObj.nextLabel

[Tamas Szekeres]

Frank,

I don't object keeping this function until some further releases as it
stands now.
However I don't favour introducing the practice of keeping much of the
client related state (like the state of an iteration) inside the
mapserver core.

Best regards,

Tamas


2007/7/1, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com>:
> Tamas Szekeres wrote:
> >>
> >> As the "Ghost of Backward Compatability" I'd rather not get rid of
> >> getNextLabel() if it is in significant use without a very serious reason.
> >> We might however make an effort to deprecate it in favor of
> >> getLabel(int i).
> >>
> >
> > Frank,
> >
> > The next major release is the best option to get rid of the unwanted
> > parts of the interface.
> > Moreover the current nextLabel is quite unconventional and does not
> > allow the client to reset the iteration. I have no idea what is the
> > desired use this function then. When we build up a loop until the
> > returned value is null we might not get all of the results back. It's
> > definitely unfeasible. Though we are thinking of that support of
> > resetting the iteration, I guess it goes against the idea of the
> > deprecation.
>
> Tamas,
>
> Well, I respectfully disagree.  If the interface works, and is in
> reasonably widespread use, and we have no compelling reason for
> removing it then I don't think we should remove it.
>
> Changing stuff like this is going to be a poke in the eye for folks
> trying to maintain higher level applications, especially if they would
> like them to work with 4.10 and 5.0.
>
> Deprecating normally involves advising that a particular interface is
> no longer intended for use, but not actually removing it for some
> time into the future (perhaps at MapServer 6.0).
>
> On the other hand, this might be a good time to remove some cruft
> that we deprecated at 4.0.
>
> I'm not a genius programmer, and I'm not particularly skilled at
> web applications.  But there is one thing that I know.  Interface
> churn costs user-base, and a stable API shows love for the user-base.
>
> Best regards,
> --
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
>
>