Re: svn commit: rev 7365 - in trunk/subversion: include libsvn_subr libsvn_wc

"C. Michael Pilato" <cmpilato@collab.net> writes:
> kfogel@collab.net writes:
> > julianfoad@tigris.org writes:
> > > Log:
> > > Remove "const" where it was over-zealously used on some function parameters
> > > that are passed by value. It has no meaning in the interface, and only
> > > exposes an artifact of the current implementation.
> >
> > Doesn't 'const' prevent the callee from changing the value of the
> > argument locally?
>
> Who cares? If you change the value of a variable passed by value, it
> doesn't affect the caller at all.

Veering dangerously close to a generic C usage discussion, but... :-)

You might care if you want to alert the programmer that a) the
variable signifies some important piece of data from the calrer, and
b) the callee's logic counts on that data remaining consistent
throughout its code.

In other words, you'd use it for the same reason you use 'const'
anywhere: to help the programmer understand how this particular code
works.

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Received on Thu Oct 9 18:51:18 2003