[bt-devel] Feature-a-thon

['Kang Sun']

* Jaak Ristioja <Ristioja at gmail.com> wrote on [2010/01/01 11:34]:
> 
> On 01.01.2010 19:13, 'Kang Sun' wrote:
> > The roadmap is a really good idea.  I would also like to see a design 
> > plan for the APIs as well.
> 
> What exactly do you have in mind by "a design plan for the APIs"? Are we
> discussing interfacing with other software? Please share.
 
No, I'm thinking of standardizing how the public interfaces of some 
classes are laid out.  This is to keep things stable when new features 
are added, so that the new code doesn't need to be constantly updated to 
the public interfaces.  Of course, refactoring can go on at full speed 
on the private implementation side.

Since we have been talking about a major refactoring for a while, now 
might be a good time to discuss best practices and design patterns that 
will be used for the base classes and other more upper level classes.  
There are issues like having the same private data member of the same 
type existing in each inheritance level of a derived class.  Are so many 
copies really needed or is there a need for a getter/setter method to 
provide access to derived classes?  It makes the code hard to maintain 
and hard to understand (at least to me).

I would like to see a stronger adherence to best practices.  We have 
Effective C++ in our reading list, but we often (including myself) don't 
follow them.  Sure, they are guidelines, but there should be a good 
reason to deviate from them in general.  If not, then we should remove 
it from the reading list because it will add confusion to any new 
members of the project who are trying to adhere to them.  Best practices 
(although not agreed upon by everyone) do improve the quality of the 
code and make us better programmers.  There is a broad consensus behind 
most of what is espoused in Effective C++.  

While we are talking about features to improve BT, let's also look at 
coding practices that can also improve BT.  Let's encourage each other 
to use them.  Let's teach them to each other.  I have plenty to learn 
from you guys.

May the Lord bless BT and those who use it to study His Word!
Kang