CChar vs Int8

(Luke Howard) #1

Many Foundation APIs use Int8 instead of CChar when representing C strings, e.g.:
var UTF8String: UnsafePointer <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_UnsafePointer_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs13UnsafePointer><Int8 <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_Int8_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs4Int8>> { get }
I don’t know if/when Swift will be ported to a platform where the character type is unsigned but perhaps it would be good to update these to take CChar instead?

— Luke

(Tony Parker) #2

Hi Luke,

···

On Jan 2, 2016, at 8:28 PM, Luke Howard via swift-corelibs-dev <swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org> wrote:

Many Foundation APIs use Int8 instead of CChar when representing C strings, e.g.:
var UTF8String: UnsafePointer <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_UnsafePointer_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs13UnsafePointer><Int8 <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_Int8_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs4Int8>> { get }
I don’t know if/when Swift will be ported to a platform where the character type is unsigned but perhaps it would be good to update these to take CChar instead?

— Luke

I’m not really sure why it’s imported to Swift as an unsafe pointer to Int8 anyway. The Objective-C code uses char:

@property (nullable, readonly) __strong const char *UTF8String NS_RETURNS_INNER_POINTER; // Convenience to return null-terminated UTF8 representation

- (nullable instancetype)initWithUTF8String:(const char *)nullTerminatedCString;

- Tony

(Philippe Hausler) #3

No C strings import as UnsafePointer<CChar> for some reason; they all import as Int8

e.g.
public func pthread_setname_np(_: UnsafePointer<Int8>) -> Int32

···

On Jan 4, 2016, at 1:20 PM, Tony Parker via swift-corelibs-dev <swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org> wrote:

Hi Luke,

On Jan 2, 2016, at 8:28 PM, Luke Howard via swift-corelibs-dev <swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org <mailto:swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org>> wrote:

Many Foundation APIs use Int8 instead of CChar when representing C strings, e.g.:
var UTF8String: UnsafePointer <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_UnsafePointer_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs13UnsafePointer><Int8 <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_Int8_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs4Int8>> { get }
I don’t know if/when Swift will be ported to a platform where the character type is unsigned but perhaps it would be good to update these to take CChar instead?

— Luke

I’m not really sure why it’s imported to Swift as an unsafe pointer to Int8 anyway. The Objective-C code uses char:

@property (nullable, readonly) __strong const char *UTF8String NS_RETURNS_INNER_POINTER; // Convenience to return null-terminated UTF8 representation

- (nullable instancetype)initWithUTF8String:(const char *)nullTerminatedCString;

- Tony

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(Luke Howard) #4

OK, I filed [SR-466] as a compiler issue. If the behaviour changes and that flows through to Darwin Foundation, we can update the open source one...

— Luke

···

On 5 Jan 2016, at 8:21 AM, Philippe Hausler <phausler@apple.com> wrote:

No C strings import as UnsafePointer<CChar> for some reason; they all import as Int8

e.g.
public func pthread_setname_np(_: UnsafePointer<Int8>) -> Int32

On Jan 4, 2016, at 1:20 PM, Tony Parker via swift-corelibs-dev <swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org <mailto:swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org>> wrote:

Hi Luke,

On Jan 2, 2016, at 8:28 PM, Luke Howard via swift-corelibs-dev <swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org <mailto:swift-corelibs-dev@swift.org>> wrote:

Many Foundation APIs use Int8 instead of CChar when representing C strings, e.g.:
var UTF8String: UnsafePointer <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_UnsafePointer_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs13UnsafePointer><Int8 <https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Swift/Reference/Swift_Int8_Structure/index.html#//apple_ref/swift/struct/s:VSs4Int8>> { get }
I don’t know if/when Swift will be ported to a platform where the character type is unsigned but perhaps it would be good to update these to take CChar instead?

— Luke

I’m not really sure why it’s imported to Swift as an unsafe pointer to Int8 anyway. The Objective-C code uses char:

@property (nullable, readonly) __strong const char *UTF8String NS_RETURNS_INNER_POINTER; // Convenience to return null-terminated UTF8 representation

- (nullable instancetype)initWithUTF8String:(const char *)nullTerminatedCString;

- Tony

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