Re: RFC: do we want/need the "Ptr" typedefs for internal code ?
On Tue, Mar 09, 2021 at 17:44:16 +0000, Daniel Berrange wrote:
One of the conventions we have had since the early days of libvirt
is
that every struct typedef, has a corresponding "Ptr" typedef too.
For example
typedef struct _virDomainDef virDomainDef;
typedef virDomainDef *virDomainDefPtr;
[...]
We can't do anything about the use "Ptr" in the
include/ files because
that is public ABI. We can potentially eliminate "Ptr" types everywhere
else in the codebase, even the src/libvirt*.c files corresponding to
the public includes.
Does anyone have suggestions for how these "Ptr" typedefs are
benefiting libvirt ? Would anyone miss them ?
I don't usually declare them for internal types any more. I will not
mourn if we discourage them from now on.
I'd just prefer if we either big-bang rewrite all of it or just
discourage it's use in new code and let it gradually die, but not
encourage any semi-concetrated effort to remove the use of them, since
that creates a stream of steady and long enduring churn.
Basically don't make a GSoC project or file an public 'bite-sized'
task for it.