bugGNU Astronomy Utilities - Bugs: bug #48609, Modifier 'const' should be used...

 
 

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bug #48609: Modifier 'const' should be used for function arguments and results where appropriate

Submitter:  Vladimir Markelov <vvm>
Submitted:  Sun 24 Jul 2016 01:56:52 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  All Gnuastro Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  Source code Status:  None
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Open

Sun 24 Jul 2016 01:56:52 AM UTC, original submission:  

A lot of functions takes pointers to data and returns pointers. It would be good to mark 'const' pointers if a function does not change the data or a caller should not change the returned data.

Why:

1. It will be a good hint for a user - a person can easily see if a function changes his/her data or function just reads them

2. A compiler can be a real helper and warn a user if the user tries to change the data(returned by a function) that should be changed at all

A good example for #2 is function 'hdutypestring'. It returns 'char*' but really it returns a pointer to read-only data, so a client code will likely to crash if, e.g, the client code tries to change the returned value in place. A compiler warns the user in this case about casting a 'const char*' to 'char *'.

Vladimir Markelov <vvm>

 

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