[gdome]Re: reference counting again

[Chaoron <chaoron ludens elte hu>]

The endless thread continues... :-)

> newnode = gdome_n_cloneNode(node, TRUE, &exc);
> root = (GdomeNode*) gdome_doc_documentElement(self, &exc);
>
> while ((tmpnode = gdome_n_firstChild(newnode, &exc)) != NULL) {
>   GdomeNode* n1 = gdome_n_removeChild(newnode, tmpnode, &exc);
>   GdomeNode* n2 = gdome_n_appendChild(root, n1, &exc);
>   gdome_n_unref(tmpnode, &exc);
>   gdome_n_unref(n1, &exc);
>   gdome_n_unref(n2, &exc);
> }

In my case node (and so newnode) created from a different document, so 
n1 cannot be appended to the other document's root. I haven't tried it 
yet though.


> you are right, but that's because appendChild _does_return_ the 
> appended node. So it's better (even though more verbose) to create 
> another temp variable and to unref that variable instead, as I've 
> done in the example above. It's much more clear and doesn't rely on 
> Gdome2 side effects.
> Unfortunately, when using C + reference counting, you cannot just 
> forget about useless returned values ;-(

That's the cause I think returning with a new reference in appendChild 
like functions are unnecessary and make it hard to read and/or debug 
the C code. For example GTK has reference counting, but object query 
functions do not make another reference, instead you should use 
g_object_ref() on returned object if you really want to hold that 
reference. And it's very easy to automaticaly increase reference
count in language bindings with gdome_n_ref(). This could be done by 
modifying gdome_xml_n_mkref() to only create Gdome_xml_Node if it not 
already exists. But it's just an idea, too many programs would be
concerned.

Daniel