Re: on replacing GTK_WIDGET_* with gtk_widget_get_* INSIDE gtk+

[Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi gmail com>]

On Wed, 2010-03-17 at 17:49 +0100, Christian Dywan wrote:

> > recently there's been a flood of changes in gtk+ where *internal* uses
> > of GTK_WIDGET_* macros accessing the widget flags were replaced by the
> > new public accessors. Why is that? I thought the GSEAL work was
> > intended to only seal *outside* access to the flags, while
> > library-internal code could continue to use the shortcuts macros.
> > These changes mean that every time I rebase my gtk tree, I have some
> > patches that fail to apply because of this; I guess I'm not the only
> > one that this is happening to!

> the plan is indeed to remove the old macros entirely, not just hide
> them. Fortunately these replacements are almost done, so you should
> have survived most rebasing trouble.

the obvious downside is that now every single accessor will have to go
through the type check in the argument validation - and a function call.
not really good, performance wise. I'll just set aside any comment on
why we should have sealed the flags member, since it would be pointless
- the change already happened.

this might be the kick in the arse needed to get type checking down to a
minimal cost, but still it might not be a good thing to dump on
unsuspecting audience without a warning at least in the release notes.

it would be good to get some numbers, and possibly a fallback for
internal usage. or, if the numbers are that bad, reconsider sealing the
flags.

ciao,
 Emmanuele.

-- 
W: http://www.emmanuelebassi.name
B: http://blogs.gnome.org/ebassi