Java 'final', C 'const' [LWN.net]

Java 'final', C 'const'

Posted Nov 2, 2006 21:16 UTC (Thu) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246)
In reply to: Java 'final', C 'const' by jreiser
Parent article: Buried in warnings

The problem I run into time and time again with const in C is that there are too many functions in too many libraries which take a non-const pointer, even though they do not modify the pointed-to entity. Very annoying.

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Pointer to pointer to const

Posted Nov 3, 2006 1:40 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

That would be a fine idea, if you didn't run into "C++ Gotcha #32" all the time when trying to do this (it's just as much a gotcha in C as it is in C++). As long as you don't try to take the address of your const pointer, you're safe. But you can't mix const and non-const indirect pointers, because of aliasing problems.

Of course said aliasing problems might all be hidden deep inside the library (and/or the imagination of the compiler) and users shouldn't have to care at all -- but if it causes a problem for the developer, they're far more likely to drop 'const' than to suppress compiler warnings with casts and hope everything is otherwise correct.