Re: API documentation

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

M
Hello Rob,

You wrote:
>Let me say this.  I eat up API's all the time.  Use them alot.  I feel that
>some of them are buggy.  For example the QWDRSBSD api.  I use that to check
>if a subsystem has any jobs running under it, (is my domino server down
>yet?).  If you call it on a nonexistent subsystem you would think that it
>should update the error code data structure.  After all, what is the error
>code data structure for?  However it will abort with an error message.  I
>chose to set up my program to monmsg for this stupid error message and then
>move that to the error code message parameter.

I agree that sounds like a bug.  If an error code structure is specified 
that is where any error should be returned -- although there is an arguable 
case that only those messages listed in the Error Message section of the API 
should be returned in the error structure.

If you think an API is broken then you should open a PMR with IBM support 
and complain until it is fixed.  If you simply don't like the way it works 
then you should open a Design Change Request (DCR). 

I know it is a painful process but if everybody simply works around the API 
flaws then we end up with APIs that are broken and can't be changed for fear 
of breaking backwards-compatibility.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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