Re: Consensus on getter conventions?

[Karl Nelson <kenelson ece ucdavis edu>]

> Derek Simkowiak <dereks@kd-dev.com> writes:
> 
> > -> My personal preference is to have all get_* functions which return
> > -> something be a pointer to a "static" piece of memory.  Those
> > -> cases where deallocation is required should return by argument.
> > -> 
> > ->   /* this doesn't need to be freed because it was the return */
> > ->   const gchar* gtk_widget_get_name(GtkWidget*);
> > -> 
> > ->   /* this one does need to be free and it is different for that reason */
> > ->   void gtk_font_selection_dialog_get_font_name(
> > ->         GtkFontSelectionDialog *fsd,  gchar**);
> > ->                                       ^^^^^
> > ->               notice it isn't const because we give it to the user.
> > 
> > 	I like Karl's idea.  Makes it clear as day.
> > 
> 
> Karl's idea makes getters that return references pretty
> inconvenient to use from C; you must use a temporary variable even if
> you're going to pass the result to a function that will assume
> ownership.

That was sort of the idea.  After all we want to keep someone
from doing something like...

gtk_widget_get_name(w,gtk_font_selection_dialog_get_font_name(w2));

After all how many function assume ownership?  I would guess very few as it
is against policy to assume ownership.  Thus we really do want
them to make a local variable whenever they use things that
pass ownership.

--Karl