Re: Abuse of 'const' ?

[Ryan Lortie <desrt desrt ca>]

hi John,

On 2013-04-08 04:44, John Emmas wrote:
> // glib/gvariant.h
> GLIB_AVAILABLE_IN_ALL
> const gchar **g_variant_get_bytestring_array (GVariant *value, gsize
> *length);
>
>
> // glib/gvariant.c
> static gpointer
> g_variant_valist_get_nnp (const gchar **str, GVariant *value)
> {
>          // some stuff
>          return g_variant_get_bytestring_array (value, NULL);
> }


A 'const gchar **' is (in this case) an array of 'const gchar *' (ie: 
const string pointers).  It is the strings that are immutable.  The 
array itself is fully writable, and indeed you should free what 
g_variant_get_bytestring_array() returns to you, using g_free().

By the same token it is therefore perfectly acceptable to pass it 
through a gpointer.

Cheers