[development] need a standard for contrib node build_mode constants

[Robert Douglass]

Or we could have a factory function that takes a string hint and  
returns a lightweight object based on the hint. This might actually  
open the door to making the build mode useful, as you could delegate  
build-mode specific actions to the build mode object. It would also  
make the system extensible because you could provide a sub-class of  
any existing build mode object and the factory function would have to  
return that instead, even though you had passed in the same hint.

Robert Douglass

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On May 19, 2009, at 8:08 PM, Earl Miles wrote:

> Chris Johnson wrote:
>> Maybe I'm missing something here, but it's just as possible to
>> accidentally re-use a string constant as a numeric constant.  How  
>> does
>> using a string help things at all?  Either the developer reads and
>> enumerates a list of all existing uses and avoids collision -- or  
>> does
>> not -- regardless of whether they are integers, strings, or ice cream
>> flavors.
>> Please educate me!
>
> Strings have meaning. Ints do not. Therefore if there is a collision  
> it is at least a collision over meaning.