Unify Interface

[ddmarshall]

The interface to various classes that should be similar is not. There needs to be a re-evaluation of the interface to various categories of classes to make it more intuitive to use. A document should be created that explains the rules and customs for the interfaces. Here are some examples:

• Sometimes getters return class other times have to pass class in
• Sometimes it's called degree_promote sometimes it's promote
• What should be the common interface between curve & piecewise_curve and surface & piecewise_surface
• Some classes return error codes for a great number of their actions while other will return true/false and still others will return nothing.
• Some enumerations are named and have to be handled as embedded classes while others are anonymous and can be handled as ints.
• Tolerance type should not be template parameter, there should be a default tolerance that can be used throughout the library. Should it be runtime changeable? Should there be the ability to override the default tolerance in just some portions of library (compile-time and/or runtime)?
• Should there be interface classes or rely on compiler template parsing to enforce interfaces?

[ddmarshall]

More items:

• Piecewise curve has error enumeration, make it an anonymous enumeration
• Piecewise surface has error enumeration, make it an anonymous enumeration
• Remove report_point_continuity from utility namespace (maybe? what about rational bezier? They might need this same code.)
• report_point_continuity function needs to be rewritten to not be recursive (convoluted code and if you want to know the continuity, why pass in continuity variable?)
• Should audit all code and determine how useful it is, the variables passed are, and the return value is.