undocumented modules - should one care?

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/undocumented modules - should one care?

Rozek(Posted 2007) [#1]
Hello!

The actual BlitzMax distribution contains a list of undocumented modules, e.g.:

axe.win32maxgui
brl.appstub
brl.basic
brl.data
brl.dxgraphics
brl.font
brl.freeaudioaudio
brl.freetypefont
brl.httpstream
brl.maxutil
pub.directx
pub.enet
pub.freeaudio
pub.freeprocess
pub.freetype
pub.glew
pub.libjpeg
pub.libpng
pub.macos
pub.oggvorbis
pub.stdc
pub.win32

What is the status of these modules? Should we ignore them (because the are used internally by BlitzMax itself)? Are they undocumented because the staff at BRL did not yet find time to document them? Are some of them actually usefull (I saw several references to pub.freeprocess, e.g.)?

Any hints would be appreciated!


tonyg(Posted 2007) [#2]
Those modules do not hold any of the BlitzMax base command set which is probably why they're not documented.
Whether they're useful depends on what you want to do. You have access to the source so you *can* see what function they contain.
Finally, if you're looking into the code that deeply and want a helper application then get HotDocs.
P.S. A lot of people get frustrated with the documentation. BRL are unlikely to change it. If you think something is missing or incorrectly documented then report it as a bug.
If you want to know how something works then search/ask the forums.
I'm not suggesting it is right just what you need to do.


bradford6(Posted 2007) [#3]
alot of those that you listed are used by other Commands/Modules.

for example, when you do "Loadsound "sound.ogg"
the pub.oggvorbis gets used.
GNET uses pub.ENET.


popcade(Posted 2007) [#4]
For the recent audio update, you need to import proper modules to work, don't know how they can code without comments....


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2007) [#5]
OpenGL is not documented either.


Rozek(Posted 2007) [#6]
Indeed,

OpenGL ist perhaps the most important undocumented module I forgot - on the other hand, you may have already printed the OpenGL "RedBook" anyway...

Alternatively, they may look into the online reference found at http://www.talisman.org/opengl-1.1/Reference.html


ziggy(Posted 2007) [#7]
Just to mention something 'funny' the brl.basic module does nothing. It imports anly the very basic modules required to create a console application, but it has not custom code. I use it as framework when creating console applications, just as a shortcut to several framework and import statements.


Dreamora(Posted 2007) [#8]
Stuff that is not documented is that for some simple reason: It might change without any notification and without taking your godlike projects into account. whenever you use undocumented functionality you might realize after a sync mod that nothing is working anymore as you have been used to.