Re: [gnome-db] Minor API change and MySQL [update/delete]_row

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Wed, 2003-10-29 at 19:39, Paisa Seeluangsawat wrote:
> > >   1) no const object as the first argument
> > > 
> > >   2) return const if value shouldn't be edited
> > > 
> > >   3) don't force users to cast of const
> 
> > I think 3) is the problem, and that's why we are talking about it. Then,
> > if we look at the other libraries we are using ourselves (glib, for
> > instance), we see that that problem does not exist, since const is only
> > used in a very few places.
> 
> If you really want (1), then (2) is the one to let go.  A guideline
> like (1) implicitly implies that we don't return const object.  Do you
> see any glib, gnome, or any good library that return const object, but
> expect to take that object back in non-const?
> 
no, that's why I advocate for using const only in a very few places. So:

	GdaValue *gda_row_get_value (GdaRow *row);
	...gda_value_set_.. (GdaValue *value);

and so on. We'll just return const for functions returning static
strings.

> 
> > yes, I know, but a more important objective is to make the API really
> > easy to learn for people who know similar APIs. That is the case for
> > GNOME libraries,
> 
> (3) doesn't break familiarity.  The user's code stay exactly the same
> whether we take const in a function or not.  (2) breaks familiarity.
> The user have to declare a pointer to const object and/or cast off
> const at some point.  They don't have to do that in other G/Gtk/Gnome
> libraries
> 
no, if we use const only a very few places, like I said above.

> 
> > I am more and more in favour of not returning const from the
> > functions, and make the documentation clearly state not to free that
> > returned value.
> 
> What you says here is we stay with (3) and break (2).  I'm fine with
> this.  (3) is more important than (1) and (2), and our current API is
> breaking it.  As long as we fix (3), I'm happy.
>
right. That is, we remove all the const's in the API, except for things
like gda_value_get_string and so on.

Thus we solve the problem of having const/non-const issues, and we look
like any other GNOME library.

cheers