[jsword-devel] Applying patch

[DM Smith]

Joe Walker wrote:

> DM Smith wrote:
> 
>> WRT the semantic change, Joe, you had noted that you wanted getData(Key)
>> to return null if the verse could not be found. Right now it throws a 
>> BookException. This would be for OT lookups in the NT, the reverse or 
>> for input mistakes. Is this still something that you think is a good 
>> idea. I have implemented the change, but it would be easy to back out.
> 
> 
> I'm not sure I've ever really thought about it properly.
> If a Key is invalid or for a different type of Book then clearly we 
> should throw an Exception, but for valid keys for which we have no data 
> then perhaps a better response would be to return a BookData that 
> contains nothing.
> 
> Do you have any idea why I thought null was a good idea?!
> 

I don't know why null is a better idea than an empty BookData. There is 
a slight advantage of an empty BookData in that the code would not have 
to test for null. But it may need to test for an empty BookData.

I think that either null or an empty BookData is better than throwing a 
BookException.

If you wish, I will change my changes to return an empty BookData. Or I 
can revert the code back to what it was.