Re: [patch #5704] Data New/Open/Save

[John Darrington]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:07:50PM -0800, Ben Pfaff wrote:
     >      
     >      +      sss = create_syntax_string_source ("EXPORT OUTFILE='%s'.",
     >      +                                        de->file_name);
     >
     
     > 2. Either it must allocate heap space for its return value, in which
     >    case the caller must free it, or it can use a static buffer, which
     >    causes other problems.
     
     This is why I was suggesting to use the approach of the gnulib
     "quote" function (which see), which seems to be fairly
     successful.  Otherwise, yes, it's not a great situation.  (Pools
     might help, but they won't entirely erase the pain.)


I had a brief look at the gnulib function.  Essentially, it seems to
address this problem merely by allowing the caller to nominate a
particular static buffer to use, which (like you say) affords some
flexibility, but doesn't really solve the problem.

I was thinking that an alternative approach would be to implement a
special conversion specification within the
create_syntax_string_source function.  Then we could simply write
something like:

 create_syntax_string_source ("EXPORT OUTFILE=%q.", de->file_name);

This way, there's no need for the caller to worry about buffers or
dealloction at all.

I remember coming across a sprintf like function  which allows you to
specify custom conversions, but I can't remember where I found it.

J'

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