[Vm-dev] mantis http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7349

Bert Freudenberg bert at freudenbergs.de
Thu May 7 15:44:10 UTC 2009


On 07.05.2009, at 17:38, Andreas Raab wrote:

> Igor Stasenko wrote:
>>> It makes absolutely no sense to say "oh, we'll all just look it up  
>>> and then
>>> somehow it's going to magically work". Version information is  
>>> *critical* if
>>> you want to play things together in the long term - it has allowed  
>>> us to
>>> have a very smooth ride for a very long time in this area and I  
>>> wish Squeak
>>> would have more of that in general.
>>>
>> Taking a function pointer by name, is nothing more than enumerating
>> the VM capabilities.
>> Take a look at OpenGL extension mechanism. Do they have to change the
>> version of OpenGL each time they want to add new functionality? No.
>> You can simply ask the library about support of certain capability -
>> and depending on answer decide what to do.
>
> Yes, OpenGL is a great example. Because what the OpenGL consortium  
> does is moving extensions into core functionality, increasing the  
> version number of OpenGL so that clients know they can rely on a  
> documented and stable API. Exactly my point.
>
> I have no problems with a named lookup mechanism in addition to a  
> core interface. In fact we have one, it's ioLoadFunctionFrom. It  
> solves a useful problem, namely that of how to support entry points  
> where you don't know whether they will be available in the future or  
> if it's only for use in this one version. But it's not a replacement  
> for a documented core API.


+1

But back to the original question - do we want to change the plugin  
API for 4.0 VMs?

- Bert -




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