[pygame] cdrom/joy-- design

["ShredWheat" <shredwheat@mediaone.net>]

as you should know, i've got the interface for the cdrom
and joystick modules layed out all in front of me.
(in scribbley-note form on the back of a paper, heh)

these two modules are very similar. they support a number
of devices (although in most cases there will only be 1 or 0)
(ok, 2 isn't too unusual, but more than that? heh owell)

it this point it looks like both modules will contain a 
sequence object containing all the available devices.
what i'm choosing over now is if it would be best for 
another level of sub-objects inside that device object.
for example, the joystick could either have some functions;
>>> joy.get_num_axis(); joy.get_axis(0).
or could offer a list of values;
>>> len(joy.axis); joy.axis[0]

the same sort of thing with the cdroms and their tracks..
>>> cd.get_num_tracks(); cd.get_track_length(0); cd.play_track(0)
or it could be
>>> len(cd.tracks); cd.tracks[0].get_length(); cd.tracks[0].play()

as it stands, doing the element members as sequences like
these examples will be a little more work, but that is not
what's holding me back. i'm just wondering if there's more
benefit? using sequences is a lot more 'python'. but as i
try code with it, i find the functions names are a clearer
(less punctuation is my guess)

two other quick changes i'm putting up for sanity checking...

changing open() and close() on the devices to init() and quit().
open/close is a little ambiguous for cdrom devices.

cdrom interface will use seconds as the time unit, instead of
the SDL 'frames' unit. i was thinking milliseconds might be
better since that is the unit of time in the pygame.time module.
(but milliseconds are a bit tiny when dealing with minutes)

well, that's it. the good news is i'll be happy with either
route, i'm just trying to choose the 'best'. this kind of falls
back to the Surface/new_surface issue. the only difference is
the "constructor" issue was settled because of a third factor--
consistency. as for the joystick cdrom thing, we are left
with two main factors.. python-style or clean-n-clear.

heh, in this case i'm leaning towards going with the python
way and put the device elements into a sequence. anyone have
some further logic to throw into the mix?

david, you mentioned you had a cdplayer for pysdl. if i
could get the source for that i'd like to convert it to use
both of these styles with pygame and take another look.
(real-world usage weighs a lot more heavily for me, i haven't
used the cdrom or joystick stuff before, so i can only imagine
what code for it looks like)


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