Re: [AD] Global variables vs. Access functions

[torhu <torhu.lists@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Guillermo Martínez Jiménez wrote:
...
> I want to do a proposal about global variables. The old API has some
> of them (key, screen, font, key_shifts, etc.). When I wrote
> Allegro.pas I had a lot of problems with them and some should be
> translated onto "pointers to pointers of something". The hardest ones
> were the global arrays (key, fix_cos, fix_sin...). I don't know if
> other ports (python, D...) had same problems but if the new API will
> use access functions instead of global variables (you know "int
> get_key_shift (void);" and "void set_key_shift (int);" instead of
> "extern int key_shift;") they will be easer to port and I think it
> will add more stability to the library (check bounds, values and other
> possible problems).

Avoiding global variables might have made the D port slightly easier, 
because variables in DLL files are mangled differently from variables 
for static linking.  And that's not handled in a very elegant way in D. 
 No big deal, though.

Probably wouldn't matter much for new python wrappers, as the new ctypes 
module supports accessing variables in DLLs.

But in general, it seems that using functions instead has some advantages.