Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!nsc!voder!blia!mao
From: mao@blia.BLI.COM (Mike Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Request for Object-Oriented extension to XEvents
Message-ID: <5626@blia.BLI.COM>
Date: 19 Oct 88 16:45:35 GMT
References: <161@tityus.UUCP> <267@stan.com>
Reply-To: ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!mao (Mike Olson)
Organization: Britton Lee
Lines: 39

i've done object-oriented windows for X11R2.  although i like the extension
proposed, a few points bother me:

jim fulton is correct, in his response to the original message, when he states
that hash table lookups are cheap.  associating a little data with a window
only saves you a little work.

second, at some point, programmers have to program.  the server may be able to
do some bookkeeping for my application, but we need to be careful, as is
evident here:

> From: garya@stan.com (Gary Aitken)
> There should be two pointers passed ...

should there be n pointers passed?  [actually, there should be zero pointers
passed.  the server should return some number of bits (32 or 64?) with the
event.  assuming that you've got enough bits for a pointer is a very bad
idea (again, fulton is correct).]  if the consortium decides to do something
like this, they'll need to ignore most of us; i'd *really* like the server
to return the piece of code i should execute, along with all parameters i
should pass it, and maybe also the day of the week.

finally, calling this an "object-oriented" extension is a mistake.  you tell
the server that window p has some bits pb associated with it, and ask the
server to give you those bits when something happens to the window.  the
macintosh has done this from the days of the 128k closed box, and nobody
pretended that *it* was object-oriented, back then.  the meaning of the data
depends on the application.

i think that the original poster should consider jim fulton's comments, and
submit a proposal.  as i say, i like the idea, in general; there are problems,
but they might be worth solving.

i'm willing to discuss the pitfalls of object-oriented windows, but we should
probably do so off-line.  my email address appears below.

					mike olson
					britton lee, inc.
					...!ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!mao