Re: [gnome-db] Little API problems

[Bas Driessen <bas driessen xobas com>]

> >  > 
> > > GdaColumnIndex:
> > > - This is a reference-counted object, but it also has a
> > > gda_column_index_free() function. When would/could this be
> > > used? I'm pretty sure that it should be removed. It does a
> > > g_free() instead of a g_object_unref().
> > 
> > Done, I've removed it as it was a bad idea to have such a harmfull function!
> > 
> > 
> >  I introduced gda_column_index (originally called
> > GdaDataModelColumnIndexAttributes) a couple of months ago.
> > Therefore I am just curious about the comment above . Why is (was)
> > gda_column_index_free a bad idea while gda_column_free for instance is not?
> > Probably not quiet awake here, but just to prevent that I will be making
> > similar mistakes in the future.
> >  
>
> When you have a GObject derived structure, then you should never call
> g_free() on it (unless you want some trouble!), but let the object
> free its memory when it's no longer used by its destructor (that is
> when its reference count has dropped to 0 which is what the
> g_object_unref() method does when you are the only one to hold a
> reference on that object).
>
> The gda_column_index_free() function is in fact only to be used by the
> destructor of that object, and must not be called from the outside. In
> fact no GObject should have a _free() public method.
>
> For that specific part of code, maybe the implementation was wrong in
> the first place! It also points that the gda_column_free() function
> suffers from the same problem. I'll take care of that.

Thanks for explaining Vivien. Much appreciated!

Bas.