[Laszlo-dev] API nits

[P T Withington]

On 2008-04-17, at 23:15 EDT, Philip Romanik wrote:
> Hi Tucker,
>
> I need some advice on how to handle some deviations from the API.
>
> LzNode.childOf(node)
>  I need a second argument because childOf() is also a documented API  
> call for LzDataNode. When I originally did the swf9 port I renamed  
> LzDataNode.childOf() to be childOfNode(). However, childOf() is the  
> documented API call. To fix, I added a definition of childOf() in  
> LzMiniNode and added a second argument. The API deviation is that  
> LzNode.childOf now takes a second argument that is ignored.

Is there any way we can merge the semantics?  I am not averse to  
cleaning up these API's.  Perhaps grepping around or asking on the  
user list if people depend on the distinction between 'general' and  
'proper' subnode.  It seems like a bug that datanode is a node yet has  
a different semantics for a common operation.

> LzParam.parseQueryString()
>  I made this a static method, but the API documents this as a  
> regular method. Should I change this? swf9 doesn't allow calling a  
> static using this.

Again, lets just clean this up.  Couldn't we put a deprecated version  
in the instance for a release?

function parseQueryString (...) {
   if ($debug) {
       Debug.info("%w.%s is deprecated.  Use %w.%s instead",
                  this, arguments.callee, LzParam,  
LzParam.parseQueryString);
   }
   LzParam.parseQueryString.apply(LzParam, arguments);
}

> lztest-lzparams.lzx has lines that look like this:
>  lp = new LzParam();
> This works in dhtml/swf but generates an error in swf9. This needs  
> to be
>  var lp = new LzParam();
>
> Won't this be a big headache for some users?

Only for users who should already getting a warning like:

      [java] Warning: Assignment to free variable  
DojoExternalInterface in LaszloLibrary.lzs (61)

We could turn those warnings on for all applications.