About ProgressReport and msn-pecan

[Ethan Blanton]

Felipe Contreras spake unto us the following wisdom:
> I don't understand why you prefer to do drastic changes instead of
> small increments, which you can fully test at each step.

I'd call inflating the number of header files in libpurple/ by 3 (and
in pidgin/ and finch/ as well, I assume, as eventually all of those
structures will also be hidden) pretty drastic.  If there were a real
benefit, maybe -- but a few seconds of compilation time just doesn't
justify that kind of pain.  I just took a look in libpurple, and I'd
estimate that you're talking about turning 61 header files into about
150 (not all of them need treated in such a fashion, so it's not 180).
Sounds pretty annoying to me!

I think everyone agrees that we need to move toward more struct
hiding, and we have been doing so with newer APIs.  I don't think
anyone (reasonably) thinks this is a serious show-stopper which
justifies claiming that libpurple is especially hard to work with, or
that our development practices are out of line.  I think this issue
needs a little bit of perspective.

Ethan

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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