[fpc-devel] Generics.Collections as package for Lazarus or package for FPC RTL

[Anthony Walter]

Michael,

I see the many benefits of dotted namespace units.

1) Authorship.

Instead of using cryptic prefixes (Rx, Syn, Id, and so on) if we promoted
the use of namespaces we might someday the full names denoting ownership
more clearly. That and there would be less me creating unit names conflicts
(My StrTools vs your StrTools).

2) Discovery

If you have groups of related functionality from a vendor it's easier to
discover with code insight tools using dots. For example Indy (dot) <browse
list and pick> Log (dot) <browse logging routines and pick> Debug (Out of
Indy.Log.Files, Indy.Log.Stream, Indy.Log.Event)

3) Organization

I have a set of string manipulation routines. The LCL has a set of string
manipulation related routines in a few units. Other people have string
manipulation routines in their units. Wouldn't it be nice if I could find
all string related routines under a one category like "Text", rather than
trying to find the string functions I need either from SysUtils, or
StrUtils, or LCLProc, LazUTF8, or Regex, or MyOwnStrUtils. When Core.Text
ought to cover all the basics of Text, Core.Regex would cover regular
expression, and maybe we could add a Core.Text.Encoding if needed.

4) Maintenance

I don't know about you, but when working with the LCL I often have trouble
deciding where some new or extra functionality should go. There was a
recent issue with this and the IsIdentifier function in mantis. Did it go
into LCLProc, or StrUtils, or where? With buckets like Core.Text, it would
sure make it easier to decide.

4) Grouping

Wouldn't it be nice if controls came under their own group first rather
than at the end? Currently people names units things like ShellCtrls,
GridCtrls, or DbCtrls. Wouldn't it be nice if you could find all possible
control units in source code by simple typing "Lazarus.Forms.Controls
(dot)" and seeing things like "Grids, Shell, and Database" in the list of
available units? Or maybe if you were dealing with web rendering toolkit it
might be "Lazarus.Web.Controls".

Perhaps you think this is too much typing, but code tools allows you to
pick a value after a few keystrokes. Also consider the typing saved in not
having to type TWebEdit or TWebGrid or TWebCheckBox or whatever you're
calling your web engine visuals. You can simply call it TEdit and TGrid and
TCheckbox. Think about all that typing saved (you only need to add a uses
clauses once in a unit, but how many times do you need TEdit? Sometimes
it's quite a lot.).

If you want some examples, look at my Bare library structure:

http://www.baregame.org/#bare_game
http://www.baregame.org/#bare_geometry
http://www.baregame.org/#bare_text
http://www.baregame.org/#bare_text_xml
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