Re: [glob2-devel] New AI System dependancies

[Cyrille Dunant]

On Monday 03 July 2006 05:31, Bradley Arsenault wrote:
> On 7/1/06, Cyrille Dunant <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Saturday 01 July 2006 19:25, Ravi Desai wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > ~    Agreed.
> > > ~    I personally don't have any objections to dependencies, as long as
> > > they are easy to find and small in download sizes.
> > > ~    Any other player opinions out there?
> > > Ravi
> >
> > We should distinguish between convenience dependencies and functionality
> > dependencies.
> >
> > For example, we should not become dependant on glib on the argument that
> > they provide such and such mechanism.
> >
> > But we depend on speex for voice. Or SDL...
>
> Get one thing straight, speex and SDL are both conviences. If we
> really wanted to, we could write our own speex and our own SDL, they
> are just as much to save time as the boost libraries are. They save a
> larger portion of time, but time none the less.


No, sorry. Developping a codec is hard and _very_ time consuming. They simply 
do not compare.

> > So, For function objects and ntuples and smart pointers, I'd say we can
> > do without.
> >
> > btw, what do you need smart pointers for?
>
> Smart pointers, like the function objects and tuples, make things
> quicker and easier. The tuples would be used for many small objects
> that are stored in a map,

how is that better than using, say, a valarray? Or better, a struct which 
would make the code more legible?

> as tuples come with lexiogrphicall 
> comparing, prebuilt constructors and everything else. The function
> objects is for making the interface to gradients and callbacks much
> more convienent. 

Huh ? You need boost to implement a functor with a function pointer ?

> The smart pointers are to save time manually 
> determining ownership, and manually adding deletes everywhere.

There is also a (small) performance cost...

In any case, I cannot prevent you from using boost. But I can't say you have 
made a very good argument.

If you absolutely need somebody else's smart pointers, or tuple, or function 
objects, would you please at least consider just adding the files to the 
project ? Because here is the difference between convenience and 
functionality dependencies : what you are asking for only represents a minute 
proportion of glob's size, whereas re-coding SDL...

CU 

 -- CFD