[IAEP] Alpha API Docs are up.

[Marco Pesenti Gritti]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 7:51 AM, Albert Cahalan <acahalan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the effort. Please don't shoot the messenger, but...
>
> This is not proper API documentation. It's not complete, and not
> at all organized. It's also not a good API as far as I can tell.
>
> Automated extraction is dreadful. There is no reasonable structure.
> There is no introduction, chapters, or even wiki-like cross linking.
> Nothing provides the reader with an overview. Most anybody would
> throw a fit if they bought a programming book and got anything even
> remotely like this. You're better off with lxr. (see lxr.linux.no)
> Man pages would also be much better, assuming normal quality.

This is just API documentation, introduction, overview etc will be
provided by separate documents on the wiki. Also it's the very first
go at it, so there is a lot to fix.

> I'm also not seeing how I could call this from, say, FORTRAN.
> Usually people explain things in terms of the C language, allowing
> most any language to call the API. If you're not doing that, then
> the next best thing is to describe things at the assembly level.

You obviously can't call this in fortran, since it's python API.

> I couldn't find anything related to the journal. I'd like to see
> an explanation of how to implement an alternate journal. Suppose
> that I wanted to write a replacement. What are all the interfaces
> that need to be implemented? Assume the replacement will be written
> in some other language, possibly COBOL. How does the replacement
> get installed and take over?

The journal API is exposed through dbus. We will likely document it on the wiki.

> Likewise, what about the frame? How would somebody replace it?
> Assume the replacement might be written in Ada.

There is no API which allows you to replace the frame at the moment.
Patches welcome.

> Then there is the home screen. If somebody wanted to write a new
> one, far superior by virtue of being written with FreePascal, how
> would that work? BTW, I hope that the home screen acts as a normal
> desktop pager.

Same as above.

Marco