[asterisk-dev] CUT() default argument problem

[Steve Murphy]

I am sending out this message to help give "due diligence" to a bug
proposal by "shap" in mantis bug http://bugs.digium.com/view.php?id=7933

In this bug report, shap points out that the default CUT() function
separator char
is set to "-", which is sometimes a VERY BAD choice for things like
URLs, where
'-' commonly occurs as part of the string.

He proposes:

        I meant to suggest eliminating any defaulting of the cut
        criteria. The right way to go about this is to do one release
        where warnings are issued about the default, and provide a tool
        (a script) that will automatically insert the hyphens into
        current scripts where they are missing. In the next release, the
        absence of an explicitly specified cut criteria becomes an
        error.
        
        The reason to eliminate the default is (a) it will encourage
        people to actually check those scripts when they learn why the
        default is being eliminated, and (b) the current default
        misleads authors into writing incorrect scripts (as occured in
        the ENUM lookup script and various others).
        
        Defaults are only a good idea when there is a really obvious
        choice that has almost no chance of being the wrong thing in
        practice. Offhand, I can't think of anything that would meet
        that criteria where CUT is concerned.
        
What does the "Community" prefer? Should we act on shap's suggestion? I
wouldn't have brought it forward if I didn't think it had some merit!
Personally, I don't think the script to insert hyphens is doable or
practical. But the rest of his proposal...? So, in 1.6 (now trunk), we
would issue warnings about obsolescence. in 1.8, not having that
argument specified would be an error... what do y'all think?


murf

-- 
Steve Murphy
Software Developer
Digium