AMDG
For me, the only advantage of runtime access is to be easier to use inside the library algorithms. As the writer of a library is not here to facilitate his own life but the user's life, this kind of advantage shouldn't be taken into account if it's the only one.
The reason for parameterizing such concepts as orientation and direction in the library is not for the library author's convenience, but for the user. We typically see code that looks like this coming from the average programmer:
if(layer % 2) { ...150 lines of application code that look like do_something(point.x() + value); ... } else { ...150 lines of near identical application code that look like do_something(point.y() + value); ... }
To the extent possible, the library should rely only on compile time accessors, IMO. This does not preclude having the points also provide runtime accessors for users. It might work to allow either compile time access or runtime access and if either one is not given, fall back to implementing it in terms of the other. In Christ, Steven Watanabe