RE: urlstring testing/enhancement

[Chad Yates]

> > I also added Base64 functions that take std::string arguments
> for the encode
> > output and the decode input.  I don't know where the line is
> supposed to be
> > relating to string usage as I see most of common c++ is char* based, but
> > there seems to be std::string usage in some classes.  personally I like
> > having it as an overload option.  I can post diffs showing the
> new functions
> > if they are wanted.
> >
>
>       I think we should include these new functions. For the last
> months some things have been changed and updated to progresively
> incorporate string as preferred to char*. These new functions do not
> break backwards compatibility, so I see no reason to not include it.

before I post a patch to add the new STL string functions I was wondering if
somebody knew the prefered way of dealing with excessive temporaries.  see
the following:

/** @relates URLStream
 * Encode a octet stream using base64 coding into a STL string
 * @return base 64 encoded string
 * @param src     source buffer
 * @param srcsize source buffer size
 */
CCXX_EXPORT(std::string) b64Encode(const unsigned char *src, size_t srcsize)
{
  size_t limit = (srcsize+2)/3*4+1;
  char* buffer = new char[limit];

  unsigned size = b64Encode(src, srcsize, buffer, limit);
  buffer[size] = '\0';

  std::string final = string(buffer);
  delete buffer;
  return final;
}

notice that I have to not only allocate a temporary buffer (since the
b64Encode function doesn't work with strings directly -- or some kind
streaming), but I have to make a copy before I unallocate it, and then yet
another on the actual return by value.  I have yet to delve into the realm
of autoptr's.  is that the best bet?  if so, the stl autoptr, or does common
c++ have a better one.

thanks,

Chad