[jira] [Comment Edited] (IMAGING-358) "RationalNumber" class is "public"

["Gary Lucas (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/IMAGING-358?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=17743563#comment-17743563 ] 

Gary Lucas edited comment on IMAGING-358 at 7/16/23 8:11 PM:
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Well, there always a trade off with this kind of thing.  In general, I really dislike the idea of adding new dependencies to Commons Imaging (or any other software package).  As a software developer, it makes my life more complicated when the library I want to use requires that I also include others I don't need.  However, if there is a module that is truly common, then it doesn't make sense to implement it different ways.  Adding unnecessary libraries adds bloat.  But implementing redundant classes also adds bloat.  Is there a Nash balance somewhere in this game? Finding it might be a challenge.

 

In the case of Imaging-309, it turned out that the rational number format used by TIFF just wasn't a perfect fit with that used in the math library.  Some of the rules were a little different.  And since the rules were defined as part of the TIFF format specification, it wasn't like we could change them.  And modifying the math libary's NumberFormat class struck me as a bit risky because we would be saddling a generic implementation with some ad hoc requirements to support a single edge case (the TIFF format).

 

Finally,  I'm not sure about the scoping.  As I recall, RationalNumber was used in multiple packages.  I will look at the code later.


was (Author: gwlucas):
Well, there always a trade off with this kind of thing.  In general, I really dislike the idea of adding new dependencies to Commons Imaging (or any other software package).  As a software developer, it makes my life more complicated when the library I want to use requires that I also include others I don't need.  However, if there is a module that is truly common, then it doesn't make sense to implement it different ways.  Adding unnecessary libraries adds bloat.  But implementing redundant classes also adds bloat.  Is there a Nash balance somewhere in this game? Finding it might be a challenge.

 

In the case of Imaging-309, it turned out that the rational number format used by TIFF just wasn't a perfect fit with that used in the math library.  Some of the rules were a little different.  And since the rules were defined as part of the TIFF format specification, it wasn't like we could change them.  I'm not sure about the scoping.  As I recall, RationalNumber was used in multiple packages.  I will look at the code later.

> "RationalNumber" class is "public"
> ----------------------------------
>
>                 Key: IMAGING-358
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/IMAGING-358
>             Project: Commons Imaging
>          Issue Type: Wish
>          Components: imaging.common.*
>    Affects Versions: 1.0-alpha2
>            Reporter: Gilles Sadowski
>            Priority: Major
>              Labels: API, support
>             Fix For: 1.0, 1.0-alpha3
>
>
> As per its Javadoc, class [{{RationalNumber}}|https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-imaging/apidocs/org/apache/commons/imaging/common/RationalNumber.html] is tuned to the requirements of the TIFF format while its name purports that it's a general implementation of the "fraction" concept.
> Which is it?
> Do we want that utility to be part of [Imaging]'s public API (thus eliciting support to application developers who might use it beyond its intended scope)?
> A dependency on [[Numbers]'s "fraction" module|https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-numbers/commons-numbers-docs/apidocs/org/apache/commons/numbers/fraction/package-summary.html], as proposed in IMAGING-309) would avoid the issue, and also consolidate (and/or help find potential bugs in) [Numbers]'s implementation.
> If that proposal is not accepted, {{RationalNumber}} should preferably be moved to [Imaging]'s [{{internal}} package|https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-imaging/apidocs/org/apache/commons/imaging/internal/package-summary.html].



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