[Gretl-devel] Re: getline() and non-pointer argument
On Mon, 29 Mar 2021, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Hi,
as nicely documented, the getline() function works with a source and a
target argument, which are used as in:
getline(source, target)
Syntactically, shouldn't it rather be getline(source, &target) ? I
thought that in hansl a function argument can only be modified if a
pointer to it is passed. Compare the mols() or the eigen() syntax. Are
there other functions with writable non-pointerized arguments?
(In any case, the old form could maybe continue to be allowed for
compatibility.)
You're right, it would be more consistent to require (at least
nominally) a pointerized argument for target.
I took a look at geneval.c to see if by any chance the pointerized
version was already accepted. Answer: No. But it would be quite easy
to support the pointer version and revise the doc accordingly, while
keeping the existing form for compatibility.
Not sure offhand if there are any other similar instances.
Allin