Re: GLib: embedded list implementation?

[Matthew Barnes <mbarnes redhat com>]

On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 10:41 -0500, Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> > The Linux kernel has a unique, and useful, doubly-linked list 
> > implementation that I find myself constantly copying into the userspace 
> > programs that I write.  As a frequent user of GLib in my console-based 
> > and server applications, I thought it would be nice to have included in 
> > GLib proper, and wanted to solicit the opinions of current developers.
> 
> When I first came around GLib I wanted to propose the same...  Basically
> the current GLib lists and the kernel-style lists are two different
> things.  They have completely different uses and purposes.

This might be crack but it's crossed my mind before.

What about embedding a GList node at the top of a larger struct, as we
do with GObjects?  e.g.

   struct MyNode {
           GList parent;
           ... other data ...
   };

Sure you'd have an unused 'data' pointer in every node, but it might be
possible to use a subset of the GList and GQueue APIs that only
manipulate GList pointers (not the 'data' pointer) and avoid the need
for a bunch of list macros.

I'm sure GList was not designed with this in mind so I have no idea if
the API is safe to use this way.  I've never been crazy enough to try.

Matthew Barnes