wxruby users - Nov 2008 - More rubish API

Hi,
Sometimes I find places in WxRuby API which seem to me not quite Ruby way
compatible. :)
I know (it''s written somewhere on the wxruby site), that there is an
acvity
to make WxRuby more Rubish.
I don''t feel enough confident in Ruby or WxRuby to fully participate,
but
I''d like to point to some places which could be improved.
Where is the best place to do it? This mailing list or bug tracker or
somewhere else? :)

For example, that''s what I''ve noticed while examining
RichTextAttr#apply:
"Applies the attributes in style to the original object, but not those
attributes from style that are the same as those in compareWith (if passed).
See also RichTextAttr#combine for a function that does almost the same but
returns a new object instead of modifying the original object."

I''d mark combine as deprecated and use apply! instead, because
that''s what
exclamation mark is for. What do you think?

Best regards,
Kirill.


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What I also would like to propose is to make set-methods
"chainable".Currently
I have to do the following:
    style = Wx::RichTextAttr.new
    style.set_font_face_name("Verdana")
    style.set_font_size(10)
I would like to do:
    style = Wx::RichTextAttr.new
    style.set_font_face_name("Verdana").set_font_size(10)
etc.

This can be easily done by returning self object after modifying it.

I also would like to point that set_text_colour and set_background_colour
are named in a british manner (OUR), which is fine for
language, but is not traditional for IT, which uses color (OR). It looks
reasonable to change or at least alias this.

Thanks,
Kirill

2008/11/5 Kirill Likhodedov <kirill.likhodedov at gmail.com>
> Hi,
> Sometimes I find places in WxRuby API which seem to me not quite Ruby way
> compatible. :)
> I know (it''s written somewhere on the wxruby site), that there is
an acvity
> to make WxRuby more Rubish.
> I don''t feel enough confident in Ruby or WxRuby to fully
participate, but
> I''d like to point to some places which could be improved.
> Where is the best place to do it? This mailing list or bug tracker or
> somewhere else? :)
>
> For example, that''s what I''ve noticed while examining
RichTextAttr#apply:
> "Applies the attributes in style to the original object, but not those
> attributes from style that are the same as those in compareWith (if
passed).
> See also RichTextAttr#combine for a function that does almost the same but
> returns a new object instead of modifying the original object."
>
> I''d mark combine as deprecated and use apply! instead, because
that''s what
> exclamation mark is for. What do you think?
>
> Best regards,
> Kirill.
>
>
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Kirill Likhodedov wrote:
> Sometimes I find places in WxRuby API which seem to me not quite Ruby 
> way compatible. :)
Yes, me too. It''s pretty much a straight port of the C++ wxWidgets API,
with a few additions to make it more comfortable in ruby (eg 
accessor-like method names, using symbols to name event handlers, 
keyword constructors for Windows). And the wxWidgets API itself is not 
especially consistent across classes in the way that similar methods work.
> I know (it''s written somewhere on the wxruby site), that there is
an
> acvity to make WxRuby more Rubish.
This activity - which was under the project ''wxSugar'' has kind
of been
in abeyance. Basically my time has been focussed on extending and 
correcting the SWIG wrapping. This stuff is pretty hard for newcomers to 
do - things like dealing with cross-language memory handling and 
wrapping virtual classes. But much of the syntax enhancement work can be 
done - or at least prototyped - in ruby.

We''ve also tried to keep the API stable since around version 1.9.2, so 
this has limited scope for big changes. But I would see wxRuby 3.0 as 
the place to be more radical and ruby-ify the API. I think then we also 
have a better view of all the places where changes might be desirable, 
to increase consistency.
> I don''t feel enough confident in Ruby or WxRuby to fully
participate,
> but I''d like to point to some places which could be improved.
Any contributions and discussions on these topics are very welcome.
> Where is the best place to do it? This mailing list or bug tracker or 
> somewhere else? :)
Probably the wxruby-development mailing list for detailed syntax 
discussions.
> For example, that''s what I''ve noticed while examining
RichTextAttr#apply:
> "Applies the attributes in style to the original object, but not those
> attributes from style that are the same as those in compareWith (if 
> passed).
> See also RichTextAttr#combine for a function that does almost the same 
> but returns a new object instead of modifying the original object."
>
> I''d mark combine as deprecated and use apply! instead, because
that''s
> what exclamation mark is for. What do you think?
I''d agree - but at the same time, I''d say it''s
important to make this
change across all places it''s relevant at the same time. There are a
few
other methods I think that have this pattern.

alex

Kirill

Thanks for the discussion.

Kirill Likhodedov wrote:
> What I also would like to propose is to make set-methods
"chainable".
> Currently I have to do the following:
>     style = Wx::RichTextAttr.new
>     style.set_font_face_name("Verdana")
>     style.set_font_size(10)
> I would like to do:
>     style = Wx::RichTextAttr.new
>     style.set_font_face_name("Verdana").set_font_size(10)
> etc.
I''m not generally a fan of method chaining - to me your second example 
is less clear than your first. It''s 40 or 50 characters without any 
white space.

I''d use a keyword constructor here, or a more declarative set of
statements:

attr = Wx::RichTextAttr.new( :font_face_name => ''Verdana'',
:font_size =>
10 )

or

attr = Wx::RichAttr.new
attr.font_face_name = ''Verdana''
attr.font_size = 10

The second should already work.
>
> This can be easily done by returning self object after modifying it.
Sure, if you would like this change, you can implement it yourself right 
away. Add something like this to your personal wx_additions library:

class Wx::RichTextAttr
  instance_methods.grep(/^set/) do | method_name |
    old_method = instance_method(method_name)
    define_method(method_name) do | *args |
      old_method.bind(self).call(*args)
      self
    end
  end
end
> I also would like to point that set_text_colour and 
> set_background_colour are named in a british manner (OUR), which is 
> fine for 
> language, but is not traditional for IT, which uses color (OR). It 
> looks reasonable to change or at least alias this.
Hehe. I''m British and this is my single favo_u_rite feature of
wxWidgets
and wxRuby. To replace them in the core lib with nasty US mis-spellings, 
you''ll have to prise them from my cold dead fingers. :)

Again, ruby makes it easy to change if it bothers you:

Wx::Color = Wx::Colour
alias :get_background_color :get_background_colour

etc

cheers
alex