AW: list separator in config entries

[Nhuh Put]

2007/10/8, Thomas Braxton <kde.braxton at gmail.com>:
> On 10/8/07, Nhuh Put <nhuh.put at web.de> wrote:
> > Please don't commit it. The QDir::(to/from)nativeSeparator stuff will
> break on Windows
> > (for example URLs don't use \, also on Windows).
>
> I don't understand what you mean by this, that is only used with the path
> entries (readPath/writePath/readPathList/writePathList),
> but why else would you want to store \ in an entry unless it is a path on
> Windows? In that case using readPath/writePath should work.
> readEntry/writeEntry with QUrl/KUrl don't use the Path functions so they
> shouldn't be affected by this change. Trying to fix generic strings with \
> at the end I don't think can be fixed without converting the \ to something
> else, because KConfigGroup will always think it is an escaped separator.
>

The problem aren't path's on windows. They \ are converted to / inside KDE anyway,
and also stored in this form. By calling toNativeSeparators in the read methods,
you will break stuff all over the place.
Also, sometimes there are file URLs stored using the path methods, see the logic
in translatePath(). 
I'm working on doing the list parsing and writing in the backend, with some luck
it will be ready by tomorrow. 

> > Also, something like writeEntry("key", QByteArray()) will delete key,
> which is wrong imho.
>
> that's the point, the only times you should ever have a null entry is when
> it is first constructed before it has been set to something, and when it is
> deleted. Why else would you want to store a null QByteArray? If you look at
> the patch the reason writing an empty list failed was because I forgot to
> initialize a variable to "" and was passing a null QByteArray instead of an
> empty QByteArray. IMHO null and empty QByteArray's should _not_ be treated
> the same.

You fixed the problem inside KConfigGroup, because you now how it works.
But the same pattern is often used in applications and the application developers
will probably not now how it works and wonder why writing an empty (or null)
QByteArray deletes the entry. This can lead to some nasty suprises.

	PutHuhn