Improve `lsm_str` API #17

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opened 2023-11-16 18:05:39 +01:00 by Jef Roosens · 0 comments

Jef Roosens commented

2023-11-16 18:05:39 +01:00

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The current design for lsm_str is turning out to be rather cumbersome to use. Therefore I think the following changes are in order:

Make the lsm_str struct publicly available, as to allow allocating them on the stack
Make them read-only by default, allowing them to be safely used with stack-allocated strings. Only when a write operation is applied to the string, should the original string be copied to a new buffer and the write performed. The string object should then keep track of whether it owns the buffer, so it knows whether to free the buffer or not.
Store null-terminated strings, as passing an lsm_str to any C function that takes a C string is currently very cumbersome, having to copy the string to a new buffer. Ideally, we could just pass the result of lsm_str_ptr as a C string.
Add a new lsm_str_set function that serves the same purpose as lsm_str_overwrite, but does not free the previous string's contents; this to allow setting an empty stack-allocated string object for the first time

These changes will make working with the lsm_str library much nicer.

The current design for `lsm_str` is turning out to be rather cumbersome to use. Therefore I think the following changes are in order: * Make the `lsm_str` struct publicly available, as to allow allocating them on the stack * Make them read-only by default, allowing them to be safely used with stack-allocated strings. Only when a write operation is applied to the string, should the original string be *copied* to a new buffer and the write performed. The string object should then keep track of whether it owns the buffer, so it knows whether to free the buffer or not. * Store null-terminated strings, as passing an `lsm_str` to any C function that takes a C string is currently very cumbersome, having to copy the string to a new buffer. Ideally, we could just pass the result of `lsm_str_ptr` as a C string. * Add a new `lsm_str_set` function that serves the same purpose as `lsm_str_overwrite`, but does not free the previous string's contents; this to allow setting an empty stack-allocated string object for the first time These changes will make working with the `lsm_str` library much nicer.