Return-Path: Delivered-To: apmail-jakarta-struts-user-archive@apache.org Received: (qmail 25015 invoked from network); 15 Jan 2003 20:31:13 -0000 Received: from exchange.sun.com (192.18.33.10) by daedalus.apache.org with SMTP; 15 Jan 2003 20:31:13 -0000 Received: (qmail 9967 invoked by uid 97); 15 Jan 2003 20:29:22 -0000 Delivered-To: qmlist-jakarta-archive-struts-user@jakarta.apache.org Received: (qmail 9887 invoked by uid 97); 15 Jan 2003 20:29:21 -0000 Mailing-List: contact struts-user-help@jakarta.apache.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Help: List-Post: List-Id: "Struts Users Mailing List" Reply-To: "Struts Users Mailing List" Delivered-To: mailing list struts-user@jakarta.apache.org Received: (qmail 9787 invoked by uid 98); 15 Jan 2003 20:29:20 -0000 X-Antivirus: nagoya (v4218 created Aug 14 2002) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 12:27:52 -0800 (PST) From: "Craig R. McClanahan" To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: Re: changing ActionForm to be a Java interface In-Reply-To: <3E25595B.6050909@modelobjects.com> Message-ID: <20030115102638.V30724-100000@icarus.apache.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Rating: localhost 1.6.2 0/1000/N X-Spam-Rating: daedalus.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N X-Spam-Rating: daedalus.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, Dan Jacobs wrote: > > > In effect, by piggy-backing on beans-properties introspection for the > sake of convenience, your novice users are lured into thinking that > form-beans are beans, but they're really intended to be much more > restricted in scope. > > So, if you were to introduce an interface (say, IActionForm) that more > clearly stipulated the intended roles and behavior, and documented the > heck out of the default implementation to advise novices not to use the > rest of beans capabilities indiscriminately, you might end up with a > better framework for all classes of users. > > I wish that documentation of intended roles and behavior, plus more documentation, plus talking about it repeatedly on the mailing list, would have been enough. Sadly, that was not my experience during the early development of Struts -- too many people were misusing it when ActionForm was an interface. Sometimes human factors issues have to win out over technical merit in making architectural choices. IMHO, this was -- and still is -- one of those. Craig -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: For additional commands, e-mail: