[vtk-developers] VTK ExternalData default object store

[Robert Maynard]

I personally don't believe that the ITK user/dev community should
dictate how VTK is set up. If I was a ITK developer I would have
objected and stated it was a bad name than.

I fully support the concept of ExternalData and the usage of it in
VTK. But not encapsulating the internal implementation details of how
VTK stores ExternalData seems to be a bad design choice. We should
provide names that clearly express the intent and behavior, not ones
that require people to understand ExternalData and VTK's testing data
implementation before they know why they should set it.


On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 11:36 AM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com> wrote:
> As Brad mentioned, we switched to this for ITKv4 and have had no issues or
> complaints. But ITK's data was always kept in the ITK source tree, not
> externally, as VTK did.
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Robert Maynard
> <robert.maynard at kitware.com> wrote:
>>
>> That is an edge case for a small set of VTK / ITK developers. Nothing
>> stops use from having VTK use VTK_TESTING_DATA_STORAGE and asking
>> people that use ITK and VTK to set both. We could also check if
>> ExternalData_OBJECT_STORES is set and fill VTK_TESTING_DATA_STORAGE
>> from the variable.
>>
>> I still believe that the name is a bad name in the context of VTK
>> developers.
>>
>> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 11:27 AM, Brad King <brad.king at kitware.com> wrote:
>> > On 05/21/2013 11:25 AM, Robert Maynard wrote:
>> >> If we do move to some CMake variable, I believe that the name
>> >> ExternalData_OBJECT_STORES is a bad choice as it doesn't express what
>> >> project or purpose it has unless you are already understand CMake
>> >> packages and how VTK stores testing data.
>> >>
>> >> I purpose a name similar to: VTK_TESTING_DATA_STORAGE which is clear
>> >> to all people on what the intended purpose is.
>> >
>> > The ExternalData_OBJECT_STORES option comes from the CMake ExternalData
>> > module.  It is not specific to any one project like VTK.  The content
>> > stored in the named location(s) is content-addressed and therefore can
>> > never have conflicts across projects.  It can even share copies of
>> > identical data used by multiple projects.
>> >
>> > -Brad
>
>
>
>
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