[Drawkit] File format extensions

[Brad Larson]

On May 15, 2008, at 7:41 PM, Graham Cox wrote:

> Hi Brad,
>
> This looks like a good approach - drop in categories and they can be  
> used automatically.
>
> In terms of rehosting the download, I think that needs to be thought  
> about. I'd prefer that there weren't an uncontrolled number of  
> branches for the time being. I have an SVN repo ready to go, the  
> intention being that you can always get the latest sources by doing  
> a checkout/update from there. Problem is this: the current sources  
> are hosted on another svn repo. I'd like to move them to the new  
> repo without losing the history. I know how that is done when one  
> has access to the host directly, but I don't, for either repo.  
> That's why it hasn't happened yet, I need to get help or figure it  
> out for myself.
>
> Once that's available, changes like this can be checked in. The  
> general idea is that the repo is read-only by default, but if there  
> are people specifically working on things I can allow them write  
> status. Alternatively code can be submitted through me - I'd also  
> prefer to have the final say over whether stuff gets included or  
> not, as there are certain compatibility issues that I am better  
> placed to judge than most. Which reminds me...
>
> Be wary of the temptation to "clean up" stuff that simply looks like  
> an oversight - it generally isn't. I have several projects that  
> depend on DK, and while the usage is still definitely small, so do  
> others. Changing class names, constants, method names and even ivars  
> can easily have an impact that in general terms is unnecessary (and  
> the dynamic nature of Obj-C can leave bugs so caused to go  
> undetected for a long time). Compatibility is more important than  
> being strictly clean. Besides, classes named with a 'GC' prefix are  
> so named for a reason - this means they are general purpose classes  
> that are not exclusively part of DK - I use them in other projects  
> too.
>


Yeah, sorry about the independent hosting.  I had changed a few files  
in the framework and just wanted you and others to be able to download  
a complete, buildable version so that you could see what I was  
trying.  Submitting changes as independent source files to the list  
should be perfectly fine going forward.

The cleanup comment just came from your earlier conversion from the  
GCDrawKit to DrawKit naming.  I had mistakenly assumed that those  
files were left as GC had just not been converted over yet.  Believe  
me, I know the problems that changing names can cause in Objective C.   
Try dealing with a multithreaded application using  
performSelectorOnMainThread calls all over the place which provide no  
means for GCC to even throw a warning.  Tracking down an error caused  
by a mistyped selector in one of those can be a real headache.

Aside from that, if you're cool with the file handling methods I'll  
keep working on those.


______________________
Brad Larson
SonoPlot, Inc.
3030 Laura Lane, Suite 120
Middleton, WI 53562