From: Patrick May <patrick@...>
Date: 2004-08-24T08:44:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Idea: Webshare


On Monday, August 23, 2004, at 06:45  AM, Andreas Schwarz wrote:

> Can you give an example of what advantage a combination of request and 
> response would bring in practice?

Every web app I've written depends on a combination of request and 
response.  I think that combining the two simplifies makes for cleaner, 
simpler code.  Splitting up request / response  you have to pass the 
objects around:

def delegate( request, response )
    case request["param"]
    when "submit"
        do_submit( request, response )
    else
        show_form( request, response )
     end
end

request, response = cgi.create
delegate( request, response )

It seemed simpler to use a single object:

def delegate( cgi )
     case cgi["param"]
     when "submit"
         do_submit( cgi )
     else
         show_form( cgi )
     end
end

delegate( CGI.new )

Now, I think the best API is to let a global manage a singleton:

def delegate
     case Web["param"]
     when "submit"
         do_submit
     else
         show_form
     end
end

delegate

Passing around all those objects felt like useless typing to me.  And 
given that it made it easier to implement the library, that's how I've 
arrived at my opinion.  Splitting request / response up just didn't 
seem to be justified, while merging them created visibly simpler code 
in my apps and the library.

(I think caching is a side issue.  None of these designs supports 
caching by default because they all have a connection to the client in 
there.  Any of these designs can be made to support caching with some 
effort.)

Cheers,

Patrick

p.s. another thread sprung up out of this conversation; see [ruby-talk 
110096]