Klintus Fang
First Post
towngen said:Perhaps we are talking past each other. What manual configuration are you talking about?
The API would define a method to allow programmers to expose those functions that they wish to expose. I imagine that most functionality will be exposed as function calls requiring no interaction with the called programs GUI. It would simply be sitting quietly on the task list, answering requests made via this API.
Some programmers may wish to implement certain functions by invoking their GUI to supply details. But this would in no way be a requirement.
The API would be nothing more and nothing less than a definition of how to talk to one another. What was implemented and the other details would be up to each implementation. It's merely a comm spec.
the manual configuration I'm talking about is the idea that the user might have to manually configure the other application. I realize its up to the designer of the other application. But you cited the manual interaction with the application as the reason that the libraries won't work.
but back to the library issue: there's no reason you can't put pop-up windows and dialogs in your library if you want. so I still don't understand what the tcp-ip connection is buying you, other than maybe the ability to pass information between two computers.
I still think libraries are better, and the reason I've been argueing it so hard is because I've thought about it a lot over the past 12 months. There are lots of great applications out there for doing this or that minor task. And my opinion is that they would all be alot more usefule if the developers would design them as two pieces. One piece is the core computation code that should compile easily on any OS whatsoever. The other piece is the gui that wraps around it and used the library. If they were designed that way (which is trivially easy to do) then it would only be a tiny step to publish the libraries api and let others leverage the work you've done directly. If people are really, really protective of the idea that their name has to be revealed to the user when the library is used then they can put pop-ups or dialogs in the library if they want. But by making that choice they make it so their library will no longer easily carry from one platform to another.
Either way I'm still confused: what is wrong with shared libraries?
I know that opening a tcp/ip port isn't that big of a deal but I still don't see what value it gives you other than adding an extra layer to the means by which developers can share their work.
And I know that I am being stubborn, but I haven't seen any compelling reason for why tcp/ip is better than just compiling as a library and publishing the api? distributed computing is one thing that was mentioned but what rpg problem requires more than one computer in order for it to be solved quickly, i.e., what rpg problem needs to be distributed across a network?