Re: Libification project (SoC)

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org>
Date: Mar 16, 2007, 16:26 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.83.0703161218140.5518@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0703161710400.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>

On Fri, 16 Mar 2007, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> Hi,
> 
> On Fri, 16 Mar 2007, Nicolas Pitre wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 16 Mar 2007, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> > 
> > > We already _have_ the data structures!
> > 
> > Well... Shawn and I are contemplating alternate data structures to 
> > improve things dramatically.
> 
> I was alluding to rev_info, not pack_window and friends.
> 
> > With a fixed public API I doubt such improvements could be as effective.
> 
> Just think of the "API" we have for porcelains. It is literally unchanged 
> since the beginning. You can even use the original script git-log.sh 
> today! _That_ is what I mean by fixed public API: give certain guarantees 
> about what will not go away.

Sure. But the output from an executable is a damn good abstraction and the executable itself is an impenetrable boundary. Anything can change (and did change) underneath.

This is why a public API must be done at a higher level to allow for anything to change at the lower level as we wish.

Nicolas