annotate libgaim/stringref.h @ 14977:e601bc7880a6

[gaim-migrate @ 17756] Make it easy to move buddies around. Press 't' in the buddylist to tag/untag buddies/contacts (more than one if necessary). Then select the target contact or group and press 'a' to attach the tagged nodes. This should also fix LSchiere's earlier crash, if the bug I thought I was seeing. committer: Tailor Script <[e-mail]>

/**
 * @file stringref.h Reference-counted immutable strings
 * @ingroup core
 *
 * gaim
 *
 * Gaim is the legal property of its developers, whose names are too numerous
 * to list here.  Please refer to the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this
 * source distribution.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 *
 */
#ifndef _GAIM_STRINGREF_H_
#define _GAIM_STRINGREF_H_

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif

typedef struct _GaimStringref GaimStringref;

/**
 * Creates an immutable reference-counted string object.  The newly
 * created object will have a reference count of 1.
 *
 * @param value This will be the value of the string; it will be
 *              duplicated.
 *
 * @return A newly allocated string reference object with a refcount
 *         of 1.
 */
GaimStringref *gaim_stringref_new(const char *value);

/**
 * Creates an immutable reference-counted string object.  The newly
 * created object will have a reference count of zero, and if it is
 * not referenced before the next iteration of the mainloop it will
 * be freed at that time.
 *
 * @param value This will be the value of the string; it will be
 *              duplicated.
 *
 * @return A newly allocated string reference object with a refcount
 *         of zero.
 */
GaimStringref *gaim_stringref_new_noref(const char *value);

/**
 * Creates an immutable reference-counted string object from a printf
 * format specification and arguments.  The created object will have a
 * reference count of 1.
 *
 * @param format A printf-style format specification.
 *
 * @return A newly allocated string reference object with a refcount
 *         of 1.
 */
GaimStringref *gaim_stringref_printf(const char *format, ...);

/**
 * Increase the reference count of the given stringref.
 *
 * @param stringref String to be referenced.
 *
 * @return A pointer to the referenced string.
 */
GaimStringref *gaim_stringref_ref(GaimStringref *stringref);

/**
 * Decrease the reference count of the given stringref.  If this
 * reference count reaches zero, the stringref will be freed; thus
 * you MUST NOT use this string after dereferencing it.
 *
 * @param stringref String to be dereferenced.
 */
void gaim_stringref_unref(GaimStringref *stringref);

/**
 * Retrieve the value of a stringref.
 *
 * @note This value should not be cached or stored in a local variable.
 *       While there is nothing inherently incorrect about doing so, it
 *       is easy to forget that the cached value is in fact a
 *       reference-counted object and accidentally use it after
 *       dereferencing.  This is more problematic for a reference-
 *       counted object than a heap-allocated object, as it may seem to
 *       be valid or invalid nondeterministically based on how many
 *       other references to it exist.
 *
 * @param stringref String reference from which to retrieve the value.
 *
 * @return The contents of the string reference.
 */
const char *gaim_stringref_value(const GaimStringref *stringref);

/**
 * Compare two stringrefs for string equality.  This returns the same
 * value as strcmp would, where <0 indicates that s1 is "less than" s2
 * in the ASCII lexicography, 0 indicates equality, etc.
 *
 * @param s1 The reference string.
 *
 * @param s2 The string to compare against the reference.
 *
 * @return An ordering indication on s1 and s2.
 */
int gaim_stringref_cmp(const GaimStringref *s1, const GaimStringref *s2);

/**
 * Find the length of the string inside a stringref.
 *
 * @param stringref The string in whose length we are interested.
 *
 * @return The length of the string in stringref
 */
size_t gaim_stringref_len(const GaimStringref *stringref);

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

#endif /* _GAIM_STRINGREF_H_ */