[Nagiosplug-devel] Access to CVS as a developer

[Howard Wilkinson]

Stanley,

What you saw was a first attempt to get a structural approach working. I 
have since:

    * Coded a number of other plugins to use this approach.
    * Started to move to a OO based library that will I hope get rid of
      90% of the additional 'code' written to manage the plugin options
      - I am looking to do more that automate the print_usage and
      print_help facilities now. Although my original motivation is
      still to output the options as a structure that can be parse
      easily by an auto-learning interface.
    * Recode the existing plugins to have a common logic flow and action
      set and where possible harmonious the flags used by the plugins to
      give a common set of inputs. - Might have to provide some
      conpatibility facilties here, which is a pain but I see as a
      necessary.

I hope to have something to look at by Wednesday this week and will send 
that through. I will then recorde all of the Perl plugins to 
thisstandard if it is acceptable and ask that the ones I cannot be 
tested locally, be tried out. I am leaving the other languages at 
present, having decided I want to get this right first. So please wait 
to see what I can do!

Regards, Howard.

Stanley Hopcroft wrote:

>Dear Gentlemen,
>
>I am afraid I don't like the look of what I see in check_apache.pl.
>
>My quick first reaction is 
>
>1 Code that is likely to be replicated in _each_ plugin
>
>2 Code of questionable utility.
>
>This is a general comment on the Nag plugin approach of rigorously
>checking options and so on. This may violate the 'be gracious with what
>you accept' policy. OTOH, it may preserve POLA. My stance is check the
>plugin specific options that matter to the plugin and let the user worry
>about the consistency and sanity of the others: the 'out of here
>approach' as used by many CGIs.
>
>There is some infrastructure in embedded Perl to trap the 'out of here'
>cases.
>
>3 An approach to providing function that I have no sympathy with. 
>
>If I am mistaken please forgive me, but it seems to me that extra
>function is added to the plugin rather than in a common base elsewhere.
>
>Would doing so in an object infrastructure or at least a procedural
>framework like utils.pm/.sh be a better approach ?
>
>This could even be done in C/C++ for performance, and other language
>bindings added (eg a Perl XS object for Perl plugins)
>
>Again, I would be delighted to have this corrected, but it seems this
>approach raises the bar or cost of entry of 'standard conforming' Nag
>plugins, since plugin authors are expected to do more than they are now.
>
>Lastly, I don't expect these remarks to be taken seriously for obvious
>reasons (lack of effort, understanding, ...) but I am concerned that
>effort is being made to provide really good useful features in a way
>that I won't be able to or choose not to - code bloat reasons - take
>advantage of.
>
>I hope this is _not_ what you are proposing, but I can't see any of the
>words that I have found promote reuse and reduce both development
>and maintenance effort, namely 'class/object' and or 'library/useful
>routines'. In my practise, unprofessional and stupid that it is, I have
>always ended up rewriting procedural interfaces - or living with the
>drawbacks - but can keep on copying constructor and method calls, even
>for second rate classes with interfaces that suck, till the cows come
>home.
>
>If I have misunderstood, I apologise. 
>
>Lastly, your effort and plans impress me no end. Well done ! But I don't
>want my plugin output in XML, I think.
>
>Yours sincerely.
>
>
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Stanley Hopcroft
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>'...No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
>continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
>Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
>manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes
>me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know
>for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee...'
>
>from Meditation 17, J Donne.
>  
>

-- 
Howard Wilkinson
	Phone:
	+44(20)7690 7075
Coherent Technology Limited
	Fax:
	+44(20)79230110
33 Belgrade Road, Stoke Newington,
	Mobile:
	+44(7980)639379
London, United Kingdom, N16 8DH
	Email:
	<mailto:howard at cohtech.com>howard at cohtech.com




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