Re: RFC: en/decodeBase64 relocation

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 2007-12-02 21:32:17 +0000 David Ayers <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Even though base64 encoding is primarily used with MIME processing, 
> its
> usage does spring up here in related and unrelated scenarios.  It also
> seems more natural as an NSData category to me.
>
> I'm wondering whether this patch:
>
> moving the implementation of GSMime en/decodeBase64: to an NSData
> en/decodeBase64 category
>
> would be considered too much of a name pollution issue wrt NSData.
>
> I've had this patch in my tree for some time now (had to clean it up a
> bit and check for new usage of the current method so I cleanup some
> compiler warnings while I was at it to make sure I don't miss one).

I agree that it seems natural as an NSData category, but I also think 
we need to avoid pollution of the basic headers/classes, so I don't 
think the patch is a good idea.

IMO a more 'correct' patch would be to:
1. Put the implementation in Source/Additions/GSCategories.m (and the 
declaration in Headers/Additions/GNUstep/GSCategories.h)
2. Mark the methods in GSMime.h as deprecated and to be removed in 
version 1.17.0
3. Change GSMime.m and all files currently using the methods to use 
the NSData methods and include GSCategories.h