[webkit-dev] Change to style guideline: should use type& instead of type* for out arguments

[James Robinson]

On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <rniwa at webkit.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> It came to my attention that some people are using raw pointers to pass
> out-arguments (e.g. bug 69366). In my understanding, we use pass by
> reference for out arguments when they have to be modified in callees.
>
> If there's no objection, I'm going to file a bug & upload a patch to state
> this explicitly in the style guideline.
>

Could you explain why?  Is it to document the nullity of the out-param?

I personally find pointers for out parameters to be appropriate in many
situations.  It makes the side effects of manipulating the parameter more
obvious, and it provides a clear way for the caller to indicate that they
don't care about a certain out parameter.  It sounds like you have reasons
to prefer the opposite behavior.

- James


>
> Best,
> Ryosuke Niwa
> Software Engineer
> Google Inc.
>
>
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