>  Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 00:04:55 -0700
 >  From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@[...].com>
 >  
 >  Bowing to popular demand.  The release notes are below.  For
 >  instructions on using SourceForge's CVS servers for Topaz, see:
 >  
 >    <URL:https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=1020>
 >  
 >  Share & Enjoy!
 
 Excellent!  Thanks.  I think that I will learn more about Perl 5 from
 reading Topaz's header files than I did from reading Perl 5's header
 files.
 
 >  PS: We could use a little more sophisticated Makefile system....
 
 OK, well how about some design specs first.  Is there anything
 salvageable in Configure and hints/?  Is one to assume Unixy sh or
 microperl?  Automake/Autoconf can do a lot for us, but maybe not
 enough (does it have standard tests for C++ features?).  Would you
 agree that build dir != src dir capability is a requirement?  How
 about cross-compilation?
 
 >  	* Rationalize array/hash interface.  All methods must be specific
 >  	  to arrays or hashes; otherwise, we can't tell if a reference is
 >  	  of appropriate type or not.
 
 Good.  Why not use a consistent naming convention; for example:
 
      // Array-specific:
 -            void clear_array()			{ set_array_size(0); }
 -    virtual void set_array_size(size_t n)	{ array_only(); }
 +            void array_clear()			{ array_set_size(0); }
 +    virtual void array_set_size(size_t n)	{ array_only(); }
      virtual void array_assign_simple(size_t n, Scalar_p *vec);
  
      // Hash-specific:
 -    virtual void clear_hash();
 -    virtual void set_hash_capacity(size_t n);
 +    virtual void hash_clear();
 +    virtual void hash_set_capacity(size_t n);
      virtual void hash_assign_simple(size_t n, Scalar_p *vec);
 
 
 -John
 
 -- 
 John Tobey, late nite hacker <jtobey@[...].org> 
 \\\                                                               ///
 ]]]             With enough bugs, all eyes are shallow.           [[[
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