Re: Doubt about free or dont free

[Stefan Kost <ensonic hora-obscura de>]

Hi again,
> Gus Koppel wrote:
>
> > While the case of returned "const gchar *"s is rather simple, the real
> > problem to me is that the API docs are quite less explicit when it comes
> > to more complex objects than just string constants.
> >
> > For instance, whether and how reference counts of objects related to
> > treeviews are changed by what GTK+ functions dealing with them remains
> > undocumented.
> >
> > For instance: whether gtk_tree_view_set_model() changes the reference
> > counts of either the newly set or the replaced GtkTreeModel remains as
> > unclear as whether gtk_tree_view_get_selection() increases the reference
> > count of the selection object or not.
> >
> > If I remember right the first function changes reference counts while
> > the 2nd one doesn't but I may be wrong on this. Frequent explicit checks
> > on object reference counts after many GTK+ functions are my only way to
> > make sure about this while developping.
> >
> > I wish the API docs would be added a line for _every_ get- or set-
> > function, which explicitly notes whether and how reference counts of
> > associated objects are changed by that function.
>
> IMHO especially the Gtk docs lack a lot here. For many methods one has
> to look into the sources to find out wheter to unref or free. Problem is
> that that docs don't use G_CONST_RETURN. Some examples:
> gtk_*_get_model()
> gtk_combo_box_get_popup_accessible()
> gtk_widget_get_accessible()   (this one is 100% undocumented)
>
> Filed as http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=311536
> Please add others you find. 
The bug was immediately closed again. The reason given was that returning a 
const would require one to write stuuf like:
store=g_object_ref(G_OBJECT(gtk_*_get_model(...)));

Where I wouldn mind the cast, this imho reveals that gtk is a bit sloppy with 
handly references. This way I can keep the returned pointer and it can be 
destroyed without that one would notice. So maybe the docs should just be more 
explicit about this.

Stefan