Helen Borrie wrote:

>
> From: Helen Borrie <helebor@...>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Could we hear some views on setting up a name registry for UDFs?
>
> Michael Ax wrote the software for the Delphi Prefix Register (DPR) at
> http://developers.href.com He has indicated several times that he would
> be willing to make the software available to any group needing to maintain
> a similar register and to host the register on Developers....
>

I would like to be convinced as to the necessity. Are there really so many
people out there writing UDF's? The shipping library is usually enough for me.
Greg Deatz's contribution gives me most of anything extra I need, and from there
I have had no problem writing others as I need them.

The Delphi prefix register makes sense as it solves a genuine problem for a lot
of Delphi developers (both as potential commercial developers and end-users).
UDF's tend to be fairly application specific if the standard ones aren't enough.
I don't see a future for commercial UDF libraries without source code. And with
source code naming conflicts are fairly easy to resolve. I for one would want to
only compile the UDF's I need into a library, rather than declare the whole lot.

Given that UDF libraries are an obvious opportunity for third party development
I would say that the lack of them over recent years would testify that the
requirement just isn't there.

I await counter arguments with interest.

Paul
--

Paul Reeves
Fleet River Software