From: patrick-may@... (Patrick May)
Date: 2002-05-12T17:06:15+09:00
Subject: Re: cgi params api

Wakou Aoyama <wakou@fsinet.or.jp> wrote in message news:<20020511121152.GA29832%wakou@fsinet.or.jp>...
> values = value.values    # ???
> values = value.multiple  # ... ... ok??

I feel like I like values better, since it emphasizes the plural more
clearly.  Either name sounds fine to me.

> How about these things?
>
> >   1) Reduced impedance mismatch between Ruby and the protocol
> 
> this means "cgi.name" api?

cgi.name is not good.... other conflicts include:

"type", "class", "id", "method", "display"

It's not difficult for me to imagine situations where these would be
the proper name for a form element.  The more I list out the methods,
the more I find things that will likely conflict somewhere.

> > cgi.params.has_key?("name")  # natural.
> cgi.methods.include?(:name)  # ...?

This may be useful, I'm on the fence here.  It might be nice from a
coding perspective, I don't see it hurting.

> >   2) Higher speed (Symbol being faster than String)

I don't buy the performance justification....

+ usually, I access a particular param once each time a cgi script
runs.  A speed up here wouldn't affect much.

+ implementation of this could easily add costs elsewhere.  Maybe the
parser would store every value twice, once under "name", once under
:name.  Maybe the cgi would convert strings to symbols or vice-versa
when it looks up the value.  Given my first point that a given param
tends to be accessed once, neither of these really seem to be worth
it.

+ the biggest cost in cgi scripts is the startup of the interpreter. 
building a clean library that integrates easily with mod_ruby,
fastcgi, and other such enviroments would be a better investment of
optimization energy.

Once last note:

Sean Chittenden wrote:
> If you access reqs['key'], then you'll always get a non-array object.
> reqs.get_array['key'] will return you an array like cgi.rb does
> currently.

I see value in seperating 

+ pick this param, e.g. cgi["key"]
+ choose how to use it, e.g. value.values or value.multiple

into separate decisions, in that order.

~ Patrick