Re: API Design

[tomas <tomas@...>]

Hi Tobias

It seems strange to me that the Segment does not refer to the buffer.  
Would'nt you need to provide the buffer?  Something like:

b = Buffer (1024)
s1 = b:Segment (128, 256) -- from 128 to 384
s2 = b:Segment (439)      -- from 439 to 1024 (which is the end of the 
buffer)

IMHO, since the offset is the first argument, it seems to me that it 
should be more important than the length, thus the above interpretation.

Regards,
Tomás

On 2017-09-18 15:18, tobias@justdreams.de wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I'm designing a library which has a Buffer module that allows to
> contain binary data.  Think of it as a string just with less features
> :-P ... except it is mutable.  Now I'm writing a companion module
> called Buffer.Segment that allows access to just a limited part of the
>  buffer which is defined by an offset and a length.  I'd plan the API
> look like this:
>
> b  = Buffer( 1024 )      -- buffer with 124 bytes
> s  = Segment( b )        -- creates a segment starting at the first
> byte of the buffer as long as the buffer itself
> s1 = Segment( 128, 256 ) -- Segment with 128 byte offset and 256 bytes 
> length
> s2 = Segment( 439 )      -- this is the question, shall this be:
>
>                      - a segment starting at byte 439 and have a
> length to the end of the buffer, or
>                      - a segment starting at first byte being 439 bytes 
> long
>
> I don't think there is a 'right' answer, but to all those people who
> work with this kind of stuff, what would feel more natural to you?
> Also, does Segment( offset, length ) makes more sense than Segment(
> length, offset ) ?
>
> Thanks for the input,
>
>  - Tobias