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Re: Stringwise comparisons (Inline::C)

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From:
Steffen Mueller
Date:
May 9, 2012 09:38
Subject:
Re: Stringwise comparisons (Inline::C)
Message ID:
4FAA9D66.5020607@cpan.org
On 05/08/2012 01:26 PM, David Mertens wrote:
> Now now, let's not be too hasty. Using an undocumented function is
> generally not advised, and documenting how to use an undocumented
> function is generally frowned upon. As such I see two possibilities here:
>
>  1. Use pp_scmp and document it with lots of caveats indicating that the
>     function is not part of Perl's public API.
>  2. Ask p5p if pp_scmp (and any other handy UTF8 string functions) can
>     be added to the public API, as well as how you might go about doing
>     that. The difference between public and private API for Perl, as far
>     as I know, is just the decision to document the thing. So this
>     probably means simply adding the docs for the function. I could help
>     out with this.

Sorry, part of 2. is wrong. It's not just documentation. On win32, for 
example, you can't access symbols that weren't explicitly exported. This 
being said, making functions public isn't *technically* difficult, just 
brings up considerations about whether the current interface is 
something we want to commit to for eternity.

--Steffen

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