NICKLEN, CHANLEN, PATHLEN

["James LiGate" <Escape@usa.net>]

Sorry, I missed this one when I was rolling up comments.

>> Also, it might be worthwhile to consider adding defines like NICKLEN,
>> CHANLEN, and PATHLEN to xchat-plugin.h, as it may save some people from
>> having to pull in xchat.h too (which can equate to a small can of worms).
>> 
>> I'm looking forward to developing for this client.  Thanks for everyone's
>> efforts!
>
>Those are internal sizes, they really don't apply to the plugin API. There
>really must be a layer of abstraction, so using anything in xchat.h is at
>your own risk (i.e. potentially breaking compatability with the next
>release).

Well, you'll recall I did suggest including specific defines in
xchat-plugin.h, and disrecommended including xchat.h... in fact I even
commented on opening a can of worms in the latter case.  I understand about
abstraction, data hiding, and so on, and I agree with those principles.  But
let's look at why these defines perhaps DO apply to the plugin API.  Here's
one example:

Let's say I decide to write a plugin that does something with nicks.  Since
I'll only be working with one at a time, I'll just use a few fixed character
string variables.  So, now: How much space do I declare?  If I set aside 10
bytes for NICKLEN=9 IRCDs, my code will blow up when I hit a NICKLEN=30
network.  I could just say "char varname[255]" or something otherwise huge and
be safe, of course.  Or I could allocate dynamically, though that'd be kind of
silly for a handful of variables with short lifespans.

BUT... If I know that the longest nick XChat can support is 64 bytes (e.g.
#define NICKLEN 64), then I also know my plugin should never receive a nick
longer than that.  By using NICKLEN, CHANLEN, PATHLEN, etc. to dimension
variables in my plugin, I know I'm "in sync" with whatever XChat might be
passing me.

To my mind, this is less a matter of revealing internals than it is exporting
some of the specifications for the API so external code can be compliant.

It's not a big deal... just a suggestion for consideration.

Cheers,
James


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