#219 Inconsistent interface of methods mark() and getMark()

Metadata

Property	Value
Reported by	Oliver Sander (oliver.sander@tu-dresden.de)
Reported at	Dec 13, 2006 10:16
Type	Bug Report
Version	Git (pre2.4) [autotools]
Operating System	Unspecified / All
Closed by	Robert K (robertk@posteo.org)
Closed at	Dec 17, 2006 12:25
Closed in version	1.0
Resolution	Implemented
Comment	The new getMark method on all grids takes a EntityPointer. The old method is marked deprecated and will be removed before 1.0.

Description

There is an inconsistency in the interface of the methods mark() and getMark(). While the former takes an EntityPointer as its argument, the latter directly wants an entity. This is, of course, not an actual problem, but IMHO it is bad interface design and confusing to the user. The same type of argument should be expected by both methods.

While either choosing EntityPointers or Entities would be fine with me, I nevertheless tend to favor Entities. The reason is that given an EntityPointer you can always produce the Entity it points to. However if you have an Entity you're stuck. As far as I know there is currently no way to produce an EntityPointer for a given Entity.

I mark this as 1.0 because it is a relatively minor change, but it is a change in the grid interface, and I think we should do it while our user base is still small.