[sldev] Source reorganization needed

Bryan O'Sullivan bos at lindenlab.com
Tue Aug 28 09:35:09 PDT 2007


Hi, Michael -

> Although I've only worked with the source a little bit, I'd have to
> say that it's pretty bad.

Let me give you a little historical context so that you can understand 
why it is the way it is.

Work started on the current viewer code base in 2000.  The original code 
was written in large part by people who hadn't used C++ before, which is 
why a lot of the code looks like C.  Big libraries like Boost weren't 
even a twinkle in anyone's eye at the time, and many STL implementations 
were buggy, slow, or both.

> 2. It makes its own classes for things that already exist.

Many of these did not exist, or were not usable, at the time the viewer 
got started.  See above.

> 3. A major lack of documentation.

I don't personally find this to be a problem, but I'm used to navigating 
through large, unfamiliar code bases.

> 4. The reliance on external libraries in separate downloads. The code
> should be included in a single download.

The third-party libraries are not required for people building pure 
standalone viewers.

> If this is not possible
> because of copyright reasons(i.e. the library owners won't license
> it), then there should be a shell script or batch file that downloads
> them for you.

That's a great idea.  I strongly encourage you to write such a script 
and post a link to it on the wiki.

> Something needs to be done about it.

Fortunately, as the source is available and we welcome contributions 
from the community, you have the power to jump right in and make a 
difference.  I look forward to receiving your patches!

	<b


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