Builder pattern using functional options

[jhollowayj]

Right now, it's a little weird to create a backoff that has max tries, and context, and set the delay amount (zero, constant, exponential, never).

What are your thoughts on changing the interface to be something more like this:

backoff.NewBackoff(
    backoff.WithConstantDelay(500 * time.Millisecond),
    backoff.WithContext(ctx), 
    backoff.WithMaxTries(4), 
)

I'm not sure if I would want to put the delay amount as an argument, or maintain the existing constructors for each type.
backoff.WithConstantDelay(...), backoff.WithExponentialDelay(...), backoff.WithZeroDelay(), backoff.WithNoRepeat().
vs
backoff.NewConstantBackoff(...), backoff.NewExponentialBackOff(...), ...

I think this would require rewritting the backoff logic to combine support for context and max tries into the base backoff objects.

Thoughts?

Related reading: https://github.com/tmrts/go-patterns/blob/master/idiom/functional-options.md

[cenkalti]

Hi @jhollowayj. I don't plan rewriting of this library but Option pattern can be implemented for v5 in future.

[thediveo]

@cenkalti could you live with not breaking the API (not even on source level) but with adding the New...WithOpts siblings accepting options instead, similar to what was done with Docker's go-client API?

[cenkalti]

Hi @thediveo. The library is in stable state and I don't want to make any changes. v5 probably never going to happen. Sorry.