[Development] QDataStream: blackbox or document all versions?

[Giuseppe D'Angelo]

Il 25/09/2016 05:58, Thiago Macieira ha scritto:
> 
> Option 2: the opposite, saying that reading QDataStream's output is fine from 
> non-Qt code and it's fine to write data that QDataStream should read. This 
> means extending the documentation to cover ALL 17 wire formats (including 
> bugs) and keeping it up to date whenever someone modifies the format.
> 
> 
> I am in favour of Option 1 because I really don't think QDataStream is a good 
> format for exchanging data with non-Qt code. It's designed first and foremost 
> for Qt's own internal data formats (sometimes even depending on internal 
> details), the marshalling of certain types in certain versions is buggy and 
> lossy. Instead, people should find a better transport format for their data, of 
> which we already have in Qt:

For the record, I'm for option 2, as I don't think it poses a huge
burden (apart from an initial task to add older protocol versions to it,
then it's just a matter of maintaining documentation, and we must do it
anyhow). Plus, the mere existence of that page means that someone is
relying on the binary format.

That having being said, I agree that QDataStream hasn't got the best
wire format or the best implementation, but this is totally orthogonal
to the matter at hand.

Cheers,
-- 
Giuseppe D'Angelo | giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com | Senior Software Engineer
KDAB (UK) Ltd., a KDAB Group company | Tel: UK +44-1625-809908
KDAB - Qt, C++ and OpenGL Experts

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