Naming of tag operations in the XArray

From: Matthew Wilcox
Date: Fri Dec 15 2017 - 07:34:29 EST


On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 08:22:14PM -0800, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 03:10:22PM -0800, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > > +A freshly-initialised XArray contains a ``NULL`` pointer at every index.
> > > +Each non-``NULL`` entry in the array has three bits associated with
> > > +it called tags. Each tag may be flipped on or off independently of
> > > +the others. You can search for entries with a given tag set.
> >
> > Only tags that are set, or search for entries with some tag(s) cleared?
> > Or is that like a mathematical set?
>
> hmm ...
>
> "Each tag may be set or cleared independently of the others. You can
> search for entries which have a particular tag set."
>
> Doesn't completely remove the ambiguity, but I can't think of how to phrase
> that better ...

Thinking about this some more ...

At the moment, the pieces of the API which deal with tags look like this:

bool xa_tagged(const struct xarray *, xa_tag_t)
bool xa_get_tag(struct xarray *, unsigned long index, xa_tag_t);
void xa_set_tag(struct xarray *, unsigned long index, xa_tag_t);
void xa_clear_tag(struct xarray *, unsigned long index, xa_tag_t);
int xa_get_tagged(struct xarray *, void **dst, unsigned long start,
unsigned long max, unsigned int n, xa_tag_t);

bool xas_get_tag(const struct xa_state *, xa_tag_t);
void xas_set_tag(const struct xa_state *, xa_tag_t);
void xas_clear_tag(const struct xa_state *, xa_tag_t);
void *xas_find_tag(struct xa_state *, unsigned long max, xa_tag_t);
xas_for_each_tag(xas, entry, max, tag) { }

(at some point there will be an xa_for_each_tag too, there just hasn't
been a user yet).

I'm always ambivalent about using the word 'get' in an API because it has
two common meanings; (increment a refcount) and (return the state). How
would people feel about these names instead:

bool xa_any_tagged(xa, tag);
bool xa_is_tagged(xa, index, tag);
void xa_tag(xa, index, tag);
void xa_untag(xa, index, tag);
int xa_select(xa, dst, start, max, n, tag);

bool xas_is_tagged(xas, tag);
void xas_tag(xas, tag);
void xas_untag(xas, tag);
void *xas_find_tag(xas, max, tag);
xas_for_each_tag(xas, entry, max, tag) { }

(the last two are unchanged)