[Cfl-general] cfl doc suggestions

[Devin Reade]

First, I'm not on this mailing list so if you want to respond to
me, do it directly.

I just had a quick look at the cfl web site and docs based on the
entry on freshmeat.net.  I've got three observations.  You can
consider these as rhetorical questions as *I* don't need the answers
(as I am not currently using the library).  You should answer them
for yourself if you want people to use your library, though:

1.  It is never mentioned what the style of configuration file
   is supposed to be.  Does it handle traditional UNIX "name=value"
   pairs?  Java properties-like hierarchical name-value pairs?
   Sectioned "ini" style files?  XML based configuration files?
   Something else?  A combination?

2.  In general the reference manual just mentions the API, not
   the valid form of a configuration file.  What do comments look like?
   What is the valid character set for variables names?  For variable
   values?  Are variable names case sensitive or insensitive?

3.  At least some functions in the API are listed as "returns zero
   on success, -1 on failure".  How is the programmer to determine
   the cause of the failure?  I'd suggest providing a function
   where, given the cfl handle, one can query for the most recent
   error (as an errno-like integer), and one that converts the
   integer error number into a textual description (like strerrer).
   Don't just automatically write an error to stdout/stderr, as
   they may not be available at the time.

--
       Devin Reade             <address@hidden>