On 29.07.2018 21:47, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
On Fri, 2018-07-27 at 10:51 +0200, Georg Chini wrote:
On 27.07.2018 10:08, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
On Thu, 2018-07-26 at 18:02 +0200, Georg Chini wrote:
On 26.07.2018 12:37, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
On Sun, 2018-07-22 at 21:11 +0200, Georg Chini wrote:
On 22.07.2018 17:48, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
On Sun, 2018-07-22 at 16:02 +0200, Georg Chini wrote:
On 21.07.2018 20:17, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
On Mon, 2018-04-09 at 19:35 +0200, Georg Chini wrote:
+
+/* Read functions */
+
      /* Split the specified string into elements. An element is defined as
       * a sub-string between curly braces. The function is needed to parse
       * the parameters of messages. Each time it is called returns the position
       * of the current element in result and the state pointer is advanced to
- * the next list element.
+ * the next list element. On return, the parameter *is_unpacked indicates
+ * if the string is plain text or contains a sub-list. is_unpacked may
+ * be NULL.
is_unpacked looks like unnecessary complexity.
pa_message_params_read_string() should always unescape the value.
It may be possible, that the string you read is a list. Consider the
following
parameter list: {string1}{some nested structure}{string2}. You can now
read this list as three strings and then continue to read the elements of
the nested structure from the second string. You might even create a
function
that takes a string and outputs a structure. So you are not forced to go
to the full depth of nesting on the first pass. This makes it much easier
to handle deeply nested parameter lists. For me this behavior is an
important
feature and I do not want to drop it. See also my comment on why I do
not always want escaping.
Doesn't split_list() already allow this, why do you want to use
read_string() to do the same thing as split_list()?
read_string() and split_list() are very similar and we could live
without read_string(). It is provided as a counterpart to write_string()
and for convenience additionally does the unescaping if necessary
like write_string does the escaping.
I don't see why this is a problem. It depends on the context which
is the better function to use.
Again, in my mind a structure is not a string, they are different
types, and I think read_string() should only deal with the string type.
is_unpacked makes the API more complicated, so I'd like to get rid of
it.

I don't see your point. is_unpacked is not part of the read_string()
arguments
or return value. In split_list() it is definitively needed to indicate
if the returned
string (in the C sense) contains another list. I can imagine many
situations where
you might either pass an array or just a single value or even NULL.
is_unpacked
allows to differentiate between the situations.
Can you give an example? You say is_unpacked is definitely needed, but
so far the only use case has been read_string(), which you wanted to be
used for reading not only string values but everything else too. If
read_string() is changed to only read string values, then it doesn't
need is_unpacked from split_list().

The parameter types are known beforehand, so i don't see the need for
looking at the data to figure out the type. If introspection support is
desired, then that's a separate project (the is_unpacked flag isn't
sufficient for proper introspection).

This is not about parameter type, it is just to distinguish between
a list and a simple value. One example comes to my mind immediately:
Consider a parameter list that consists of strings and a couple of
arrays. Now you can read this list as an array of strings (patch 8
provides a function for that) and then examine those strings that
contain arrays separately. Having the flag (and using it in read_string())
provides a more flexible and convenient way to parse a parameter list.

The flag may not be strictly necessary at the moment, but I would still
like to keep it.
To continue a familiar theme of my review: if there's a
read_string_array() function, I want that to be used only for string
arrays, not a mishmash of random types. There could be a separate
function split_list_into_array() that does something similar to what you wanted 
to do with read_string_array(). split_list_into_array() wouldn't do special 
string handling, though, so unescaping would be left to the application. I find 
that only logical, since other basic types don't get special handling either 
(i.e. floats aren't converted to C floats).

Your use case could be served with a vararg function that instead of
producing a string array would read into separate variables, like this:

pa_message_params_read(c, state,
                        PA_TYPE_STRING, &param1,
                        PA_TYPE_FLOAT, &param2,
                        PA_TYPE_RAW, &param3,
                        0);

PA_TYPE_RAW would be useful for reading a list (or anything else) into
a C string without unescaping or other processing. There could be also
PA_TYPE_IGNORE for uninteresting variables, and PA_TYPE_*_ARRAY for
arrays of basic types.

(Now it occurred to me that the 'c' argument name that is used in the
parsing functions is a bit weird and unhelpful. Maybe "param_list"
would be good?)

I still don't see your point. Again, the use of is_unpacked is transparent for the user of read_string(), so the user just reads a string without having to care about unescaping. The flag does not complicate the API, it simplifies it because the
unescaping is done automatically. Your approach seems unnecessary
complicated to me. A string is a string, even if it contains sub-structures. Your split_list_into_array() function would basically return an array of strings, so what
would be the advantage? It would only make parsing more cumbersome, because
the task of unescaping is given to the user instead of doing it automatically where
necessary.
Also there is no "mishmash of random types", they are all strings It is only the
difference between a "simple" string which needs no further processing and a
"complex" string which needs further parsing.

I am still not willing to drop this - for me it simplifies parsing. How do we proceed?

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