Authors CurseForge

I have been thinking about how to encourage code reuse among authors on and off since i joined this community. I have made some suggestions in the past, some of them hairbrained some of them good.

Rather than suggest a design this time though, I'd like to just start a discussion on the merits of this concept.

I'm thinking of single addon libraries, and cut-and-paste code snippets. They both can be covered by the notion of a "static library". I have to use this term since the libraries we use today are "dynamic" in the sense that they interact with other copies of themselves (upgrading).

What I am thinking of is more like how Lua itself uses "libraries" in the form of modules - you get your own copy of the code, and it doesn't change at runtime.

One of my thoughts was to just use LuaCompat to enable the Lua module system for wow using an addon. Well - the flaw in that is that you'd need to get people to install an addon to enable the internal library in your addon - or make the addon a library which goes against the grain of what I want to achieve.

LibStub may work for single use libraries, but someone might reuse your single use library without you ever knowing (it is open source after all). Plus you don't need libstub if you aren't sharing a library.

We have access to a unique table for the addon a Lua file runs in. It seems we could use that table and come up with a scheme whereby we can just drop Lua files into our code and that would give us the advantages of code reuse without the stigma of being a shared library. It would also give other authors a way to write 'utility' code without creating 'yet another library'.

I could come up with a design but maybe some of you have some ideas?

So, you're saying you want to come up with a system of "cut and paste code snippets" that anyone can just use directly by dropping the file in their addon, and that private snippet is of course standalone?

I think more like tekkub's ideas of :

https://github.com/tekkub/addontemplate

Quote from OrionShock

I think more like tekkub's ideas of :

https://github.com/tekkub/addontemplate

Yes this is almost exactly what I had in mind, i use something similar in Prat.

Static, Standalone, library code that is reusable but not shared in any way with other addons.

And the intended unit of reuse would be a single lua file - not really copy/paste.

Interesting. However, with the current packager behavior, it would require hard-embedding. Else the -nolib wouldn't have those files and thus would fail to load.

Yes it does by nature imply hard embedding, the libraries become part of the addon.

The point is there is a size/complexity threshold somewhere that says, oh its easier to just do it myself (cut/paste usually). That's one niche this stuff could occupy.

The files in tekkub's addon template are a good example. E.g. When I don't need all the bells and whistle of AceEvent-3.0, I use something similar to this (tekkub's code) :

local myname, ns = ...

local f = CreateFrame("frame")
f:SetScript("OnEvent", function(self, event, ...) if ns[event] then return ns[event](ns, event, ...) end end)

function ns:RegisterEvent(...) for i=1,select("#", ...) do f:RegisterEvent((select(i, ...))) end end
function ns:UnregisterEvent(...) for i=1,select("#", ...) do f:UnregisterEvent((select(i, ...))) end end
ns.RegisterEvents, ns.UnregisterEvents = ns.RegisterEvent, ns.UnregisterEvent

I don't use AceLocale-3.0 anymore, I often copy-paste like this:

local addonName, ns = ...
local L = setmetatable({}, {__index = function(t, k)
  if k then
    --@alpha@
    print(addonName, "unlocalized string:", tostring(k))
    --@end-alpha@
    self[k] = tostring(k)
  end
  return tostring(k)
end})

ns.L = L

-- enUS
L["String"] = true

if GetLocale() == "frFR" then
  L["String"] = "Chaîne"
end

for k,v in pairs(L) do if v == true then L[k] = k end end

Those pieces of code barely need to be turned into libraries. Moreover, they would gain nothing or little of being libraries. One of the strength of libraries like AceTimer-3.0 or AceGUI-3.0 is to optimize resource usage, either by recycling the resources or by using smart algorithms to efficiently handle requests from the various addons.

Because not all authors start out at the same level?

This sits somewhere between using a proper library to handle common/repeated tasks
(that in some cases would be overkill and has a steeper learning curve)
vs using "templates" to do that same common/repeated tasks when you don't need all the bells and whistles.

For one it might cut down on all the "help me get started with simple addons" threads..
"There look at those templates for proper event handling, saved variables etc"

I see nothing wrong with this if these templates are good.

Don't get sidetracked by the fact that the code units im talking about just happen to be in an "addon template". Im not talking about the whole addon template, im talking about the individual files.

Using these code units is not just about "help me get started", it helps promote good program structure as well - so you just dont have 1 big blob. Also by separating out the boilerplate the main addon code is less cluttered, this physical separation helps prevent code for 1 thing getting intertwined with code from another thing.

And, as an aside. Copy/Paste doesn't help you learn anything either. Look how many addons have getglobal in them or this globals. Where do you think those came from in most cases.

Im thinking something like, a community maintained collection of 'templates' or whatever term is most appropriate which are added to through a meritocracy, ie. only those that are in use get added, and only those that are being used are part of the collection. Idk...just thinking.

Quote from Adirelle

The files in tekkub's addon template are a good example. E.g. When I don't need all the bells and whistle of AceEvent-3.0, I use something similar to this (tekkub's code) :

...

I don't use AceLocale-3.0 anymore, I often copy-paste like this:

...

Those pieces of code barely need to be turned into libraries. Moreover, they would gain nothing or little of being libraries. One of the strength of libraries like AceTimer-3.0 or AceGUI-3.0 is to optimize resource usage, either by recycling the resources or by using smart algorithms to efficiently handle requests from the various addons.

Exactly. Now someone comes along behind you can copy/pastes your stuff into their addon - if those things were in their own files, they could just copy the file as a whole and drop that in. So could you for that matter

like a lot of things... the problem here is not the actuall code, but more the responsibility for maintaining it...