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Re: kernel API


Koeller, T. wrote:
[snip]
For all the reasons listed above, I am raising the
topic again. My proposal is to award the status of
an officially supported API to the C++ kernel API, too.

The problem is that we have to have flexibility to change how the kernel _implementation_ works, even if the _interface_ has to say the same. Right now the C++ stuff is just directly what is required by the implementation. Defining the internal API to be "official" will tie our hands unreasonably in the future if the API is to have any stability (and stability is one of the defining features of an API really!).


If there was a C++ API, it would have to be a separate veneer over the internal C++ API. In the first instance, using inline functions etc. this could be pretty much a burden-free veneer over the internal C++ API, but if sensibly designed would give us the flexibility to change the implementation without worrying about messing up the interface.

So that _could_ be a slight improvement over the C API by removing some of the overhead. But no-one has yet done such a thing of course :-), and it _isn't_ just a case of defining one to the other since there does have to be some level of abstraction in order to hide the internals.

Given that people are either happy with the C API, or not too worried about using the internal C++ API directly, this hasn't been a priority for any of the main developers in the past. Personally I would have no objections to a sensibly designed C++ API that fulfilled the requirements above. Nick G obviously might have a little bit more to say in how it should be done of course ;-).

Jifl
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