annotate PROGRAMMING_NOTES @ 16278:70a368273778

Fix that pesky ICQ "Unable to add buddy 1" error. Basically we were trying to add something to our server-stored buddy list, but there was no "master container" to add the item to. For normal buddies the oscar code added the master container if needed, but that wasn't happening for things like the buddy icon item, or the permit/deny item. So if you had an empty buddylist and you attempted to set an icon for your icq account, or you changed your privacy setting, or you went invisible or not invisible then you'd see the error.

Notes on keeping Pidgin, Finch, and libpurple OS independant
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General
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- Use G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S and G_DIR_SEPARATOR for paths

- Use g_getenv, g_snprintf, g_vsnprintf

- Use purple_home_dir instead of g_get_home_dir or g_getenv("HOME")

- Make sure when including win32dep.h that it is the last header to
  be included.

- Open binary files when reading or writing with 'b' mode.

  e.g: fopen("somefile", "wb");

  Not doing so will open files in windows using default translation mode. 
  i.e. newline -> <CR><LF>

Paths
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- DATADIR, LOCALEDIR & LIBDIR are defined as functions in the win32 build
  Doing the following will therefore break the windows build:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s\n", DATADIR G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S "pic.png");

  it should be:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s%s%s\n", DATADIR, G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S, "pic.png");

PLUGINS & PROTOS
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- G_MODULE_EXPORT all functions which are to be accessed from outside the
  scope of its "dll" or "so". (E.G. purple_plugin_init)

- G_MODULE_IMPORT all global variables which are located outside your
  dynamic library. (E.G. connections)

  (Not doing this will cause "Memory Access Violations" in win32)