In an effort to help others (and ourselves) write cleaner, happier, more eco-friendly code, we have added optional argument count and signature checking to OpenSRF. To make using this facility as simple and unobtrusive as possible there are three implementation levels (well, four if you count “a short note without parameter information”), each one more descriptive than the previous, so developers can choose how much (if any) time they will invest in documenting method signature and use and whether runtime argument checks are appropriate for that method. The other part is the argc setting that can be passed along with the signature. This specifies how many arguments are required, and the code will check their type and class against the actual parameters supplied if the signature gives that much information. Eventually, signature level 3 will allow individual parameters to be marked as required, and it will allow the handling of named (instead of positional) parameter description and validation. I’ll go ahead and lay out the structure of each method signature level here, and wait patiently for my thrashing to ensue.
[Read more…] about Code, document thyself!

• Alternative OPACs
• Personal Card Catalogs
• Bookbags
• Record Tagging
• Reading Lists
• User built RSS Feeds of reading lists and searches
• Interactive searches
• Saved searches
• Search history
• … tons of other things we’ve collectively imagined …

What do they conceptually have in common? [Read more…] about Throwing down the gauntlet