uber / uber/h3

Pentagon and grid navigation error codes

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#627 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Description

I wanted to make sure we were in agreement around an offline discussion of #619. I think I'll abandon the changes in that PR and just start a new one, once we reach agreement in this issue.

The thinking, as I recall, was to add a few new error codes:

  • E_UNREACHABLE_CELL: when an algorithm was unable to reach a desired cell. these situations may relate to pentagon distortion or cells being too far apart. this situation might be overcome with a "safe" version of the function or with future algorithm improvements (check the function documentation)
  • E_PENTAGON_DOMAIN: when attempting to access the deleted subsequence of a pentagon
  • E_UNEXPECTED_CODE_PATH: for when we reach a situation which we expect to be impossible. users should let us know whenever they see this, as this indicates an implementation bug

We would also remove E_PENTAGON, and use either E_UNREACHABLE_CELL or E_PENTAGON_DOMAIN in its place.

We would not add E_TOO_FAR, as that would be covered by E_UNREACHABLE_CELL.

We would also not add E_RETRY_WITH_SAFE, as that information will can be given in the specific function documentation.

One alternative

We could potentially split E_UNREACHABLE_CELL into two different errors:

  • E_TOO_FAR
  • E_PENTAGON_DISTORTION

And E_PENTAGON_DOMAIN would remain. My thinking is that it is distinct from E_PENTAGON_DISTORTION. Folks agree?

Or is all this more detail than the user needs?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the offline discussion referenced in issue #619 and the relevant function documentation. Compare the proposed E_UNREACHABLE_CELL, E_PENTAGON_DOMAIN, and E_UNEXPECTED_CODE_PATH codes with the existing E_PENTAGON behavior, including the alternative split discussed here. Done means the error-code design is agreed and the implementation and documentation reflect that decision.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
backend-api-design
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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