[Opensim-dev] Designing with reusability in mind

[Frisby, Adam]

Re: Library

My thought was to have a directory where we can save .iar files - and the library is built from all the IARs in that directory at time the inventory server is started.

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de [mailto:opensim-dev-
> bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of diva at metaverseink.com
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 December 2009 10:39 AM
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Subject: [Opensim-dev] Designing with reusability in mind
> 
> In the same vein as Teravus' message about designing with
> instrumentation in mind...
> 
> I would like to ask for us to design with reusability in mind. Let's
> get
> out of the model that we are developing an application, and always
> think
> that we are developing components that can be used both for putting
> together an application that looks like SL, and for other applications
> as well.
> 
> Case in point: in the sequence of the conversation about free IARs,
> OARs, etc., I have been putting together a package with freebies. I
> thought about releasing it as an IAR, like everyone else is doing, but
> this has a problem: it requires operator access to the server -- not
> all
> users can take advantage of this free content.
> 
> Solution: let's use the underused OpenSim Library and add more stuff in
> there. No one has changed that part of OpenSim for ages! There's a good
> reason for it: adding content to it manually is a huge PITA and
> extremely error-prone. So, idea: let's take any IAR and write an
> external tool that converts it into the OpenSim Library format. That
> way
> different operators can provide different libraries very easily: just
> take your favorite IAR and dump it into your OpenSim Library, therefore
> making it available to all of your users.
> 
> This sounds easy enough. Justin has the code for unarchiving IARs...
> except that it's all tangled up with Scenes. :-/
> 
> The rule of thumb for reusability in the context of OpenSim is very
> easy: the region modules that come in OpenSim.Region.CoreModules.dll
> should be as thin as possible. They should only have enough meat to
> bridge between Scenes and whatever it is those modules actually do.
> "Whatever it is they do", for the most part, is relatively generic and
> should be factored out into their own dll, so that it can be reused
> from
> elsewhere that has nothing to do with scenes. Example: all the service
> connectors now can be reused out of the box by other tools to access
> remote OpenSim servers. (OpenSim.Service.Connectors.dll)
> 
> Counter-Example: inventory archiving/dearchiving. From looking at that
> code, the only reason why the actual worker code needs the Scene object
> is to be able to get to IInventoryService and IAssetService. So... it
> should get those instead of Scene, and it should be factored out from
> Region.CoreModules, because inventory archiving/dearchiving is a lot
> more generic than a Scene utility.
> 
> That way I could write this tool that I want in 4 hours reusing
> Justin's
> code as a dll, instead of having to copy-and-paste Justin's code and
> purge it from all references to Scene. I would simply need to provide
> my
> own implementation of IInventoryService and IAssetService that would
> write things in bin/assets and bin/inventory instead of sending them to
> a server.
> 
> The general request is this: let's not hide useful code under
> OpenSim.Region.*, which are components that only make sense for the
> live
> VW server. There's so many more tools/applications that can be done
> around it! -- let's not hide good code under there, where it can never
> be reused.
> 
> Crista / Diva
> 
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