Derelict is not a direct binding it contains lots of tools to automatically load symbols from DLLs and call library initialization and finalization routines. That takes a while to make. Direct translations do not change anything and do not add anything. When done correctly (checked by compiling it) the code cannot be broken, since the underlying API is already tested by the respective developers.

I'll look into the opportunity to refactor the dsource.org WinAPI binding, because it's much closer to reality then Derelict. In that case It'll take a few hours to finish (quite fast). Would you suggest me to send a pull request to druntime with the new modules? How long will it take to be merged?

If the only problem with Deimos is the speed at which libraries end up there, why not make the review process more loose and allow the code to be submitted and then fixed as necessary? It would be much more useful, then just having nothing at all.


On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Andrej Mitrovic <andrej.mitrovich@gmail.com> wrote:
On 11/23/12, Gor Gyolchanyan <gor.f.gyolchanyan@gmail.com> wrote:
> It'll take more time trying to extract stuff from Derelict, rather then
> regexp search/replace -ing the headers.

You really believe that your regex script is going to do a better job
than what Mike has been using and maintaining for years? The same
applies to WinAPI, these bindings have been developed and used in
years. Introducing new bindings to the same APIs which aren't
compatible with existing bindings is just going to create
compatibility issues when you use multiple libraries, and it's going
to create confusion for new users.

Instead of trying to reinvent, why not just contribute to the existing
bindings if they're missing functionality or some of their code is
outdated?

I'll also say that IMO the concept of Deimos turns out to be a bad
idea, and I'm not alone in thinking this. Only few people have write
access, which means all pull requests have to go through a handful of
people who may not even know what the code in the bindings does, and
if the devs aren't around you'll have to wait days or even months (see
dmd/druntime/phobos) for a pull to be merged. Now some projects use
module names without a root (module curses), others encode the deimos
name (module deimos.zmq.utils), and then others use their own encoding
(module libexif.exif_byte_order).

And then you have Walter which merges all pull requests without any
review whatsoever. Deimos should have been a wiki page that lists
active bindings. And each binding project would have a maintainer or a
team of maintainers (who would review pull requests properly). And
that's it.



--
Bye,
Gor Gyolchanyan.