Re: cvs commit: apache/src CHANGES Configuration.tmpl Makefile.tmpl

[Paul Richards <p....@elsevier.co.uk>]

In reply to Jim Jagielski who said
> 
> How about just /regex ?

I think support was badly named. We should use /support for code
that is not maintained by the Apache team but is nevertheless closely
integrated (such as the regex code)


There should be a contrib directory for nifty bits of code we want to
distribute but don't actually support, such as all the stuff currently
in /support.

> My only real concern is that including the regex package does seem to
> imply that we support it. If the package doesn't compile on Platform
> X, I would expect that Platform X user would write to _us_ about the
> problem and expect _us_ to help him/her out. I'm not sure if that's
> what we want. 

Agreed. We should use the native regex code by default but provide a simple
switch to use /support/regex if they don't have one. We definately *shouldn't*
get into the business of maintaining regex code, there are plenty of perfectly
competent groups already doing exactly that.

-- 
  Paul Richards. Originative Solutions Ltd.  (Netcraft Ltd. contractor)
  Elsevier Science TIS online journal project.
  Email: p.richards@elsevier.co.uk
  Phone: 0370 462071 (Mobile), +44 (0)1865 843155

Re: cvs commit: apache/src CHANGES Configuration.tmpl Makefile.tmpl

[Tom Tromey <tr...@creche.cygnus.com>]

>> If platform X has no (or a broken) regex package, and it can't
>> compile Spencer's, then what? It seems to me that we *have* to
>> either support the package, or not use regex capabilities in
>> Apache. And we're already commited to the latter.

Randy> Do you know of such a platform?

Randy> I'm kind of surprised this is that much of a debate...

I'm suprised too.  The regex routines that come with Tcl are based on
(one of) Spencer's packages.  None of the porting problems I've with
Tcl have come from that code -- I can't think of a single place where
it didn't compile the first time.

I suppose it is conceivable that his code won't port to some machine.
It seems pretty unlikely, though.

But if it is that much of a concern, then I'll volunteer to do
whatever porting work becomes necessary.

Tom
-- 
tromey@cygnus.com                 Member, League for Programming Freedom

Re: cvs commit: apache/src CHANGES Configuration.tmpl Makefile.tmpl

[Alexei Kosut <ak...@organic.com>]

On Tue, 30 Jul 1996, Paul Richards wrote:

> I think support was badly named. We should use /support for code
> that is not maintained by the Apache team but is nevertheless closely
> integrated (such as the regex code)
> 
> There should be a contrib directory for nifty bits of code we want to
> distribute but don't actually support, such as all the stuff currently
> in /support.

Bzzzt. Only problem with this is that we *do* support the code in
/support. Every piece of it was written by a (present or past) member of
the Apache group, and a lot of it is needed for coherent operation of the
server.

> > My only real concern is that including the regex package does seem to
> > imply that we support it. If the package doesn't compile on Platform
> > X, I would expect that Platform X user would write to _us_ about the
> > problem and expect _us_ to help him/her out. I'm not sure if that's
> > what we want. 

If platform X has no (or a broken) regex package, and it can't compile
Spencer's, then what? It seems to me that we *have* to either support the
package, or not use regex capabilities in Apache. And we're already
commited to the latter.

> Agreed. We should use the native regex code by default but provide a simple
> switch to use /support/regex if they don't have one. We definately *shouldn't*
> get into the business of maintaining regex code, there are plenty of perfectly
> competent groups already doing exactly that.

So we support the regex package by making sure that we keep it up to date
and pass on bugs to the maintainer. Makes lots of sense to me.

BTW, someone should go and change conf.h so it includes <regex.h> instead
of "regex/regex.h" if you're using the system regex libraries (don't ask
me how, but it needs to be done). Otherwise, a lot of things will not
work, since the regex_t and regmatch_t structures are vastly different in,
for example, Spencer's package vs. the Solaris one. (the POSIX standard
only specifies a couple of members each, and those don't have to be in any
particular order or location).

-- Alexei Kosut <ak...@organic.com>            The Apache HTTP Server 
   http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~akosut/      http://www.apache.org/