[SPAM] Re: property API vs fields

["Steph Fox" <steph zend com>]

> On Thu, 2006-08-17 at 11:25 +0200, Murray Cumming wrote:
> > > On Sun, 6 Aug 2006, Steph Fox wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hi GTK people,
> > >>
> > >> The PHP-GTK doc team have hit a point of confusion over the property 
> > >> API
> > >> in
> > >> GTK 2, mostly because publicly accessible fields hanging over from GTK 
> > >> 1
> > >> are
> > >> still publicly accessible. We don't know whether to promote the use of
> > >> *_get_|set_property() or not, and to some extent that depends on 
> > >> whether
> > >> it
> > >> will eventually be enforced by the GTK+ team.
> >
> > I mean to reply to this earlier.
> >
> > GTK+ is very unlikely to change those struct fields, even if they could 
> > do
> > so while keeping the struct size the same. It would just be too risky
> > because someone's hack probably depends on the non-public API. The
> > situation is avoided with new code by using the GObject "private" data.
> >
> > Do use the property API wherever it exists. It does more than just
> > setting/getting a struct field.
> >
> > However, some of those struct fields really are public. I forget exactly
> > what the rule is, and I can't find the email where this was stated. It's
> > either
> > - They are public unless marked private.
> > or
> > - They are private unless marked public.
> >
> > Whatever the rule is, it's probably not followed perfectly. A list of
> > structs where this isn't clear would probably help people to improve the
> > documentation.
>
> The rule is:
>
> Object instance structures: private unless marked public. (public
>   fields are read-only)
> Normal structures: public unless marked private.
>
> However, there are supposed to be *no* places in the GTK+ API where
> you have to read an object instance structure field, even if it
> is marked public; the intention there is 100% coverage with getters.

If I find any when we switch to a more recent version of GTK+ I'll check CVS 
and bug it.

Thanks all of you for your responses!

- Steph