[slang-users] const char* argument in functions like SLsmg_write_nstring

John E. Davis davis at space.mit.edu
Wed May 23 12:43:47 EDT 2007


Remko van der Vossen <wich at stack.nl> wrote:
>Why are the string arguments of functions like SLsmg_write_nstring not
>of type const char* but of type char*? This makes it quite annoying to

The main reason is that slang dates from a time when not all
compilers supported the const keyword.  Moreover, at that time
autoconf did not exist or if it did, it was not in wide-spread usage.
Hence, the most portable solution was to avoid using const.

I will revisit this issue for slang 3 -- until then you will have to
use a typecast.

--John


More information about the slang-users-l mailing list