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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> |
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2 <!-- Copyright (c) 2007-2010 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies) All rights reserved. --> |
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3 <!-- This component and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the License |
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4 "Eclipse Public License v1.0" which accompanies this distribution, |
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5 and is available at the URL "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html". --> |
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6 <!-- Initial Contributors: |
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7 Nokia Corporation - initial contribution. |
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8 Contributors: |
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9 --> |
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10 <!DOCTYPE concept |
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11 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd"> |
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12 <concept id="GUID-261ADCEC-C8C8-46E3-A7DC-804AC868C233" xml:lang="en"><title>Descriptors</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody> |
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13 <p>Descriptors are self-describing strings that can be used to store binary |
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14 data and text. Each descriptor object holds the length of the string as well |
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15 as its type which identifies the underlying memory layout of the data it holds. |
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16 For more information on different descriptor classes, see <xref href="GUID-11EEFB3D-0414-5BEB-9D78-56A4B9154008.dita">Using |
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17 Descriptors</xref>.</p> |
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18 <p>There are modifiable and non-modifiable descriptors, the latter type |
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19 is identified by a "C" suffix in the class name. The length of a non-modifiable |
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20 descriptor is defined when compiling an application, and the length of a modifiable |
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21 descriptor can vary within the limits set by <codeph>iMaxLength</codeph>. |
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22 Nonmodifiable descriptors are more secure, as their length is checked during |
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23 compilation. The following figure shows the differences between these types.</p> |
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24 <fig id="GUID-A8F9937F-25A6-4E80-845F-35994B7E13E5"><title>Differences between modifiable, nonmodifiable, and pointer descriptors</title><image href="GUID-40619192-8C2F-4267-BFCA-F53E10BF5A31_d0e11254_href.png"/></fig> |
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25 <p>When designing applications, avoid using fixed-length buffers as parameters |
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26 and use base classes (preferably constant base type <codeph><xref href="jar:GUID-35228542-8C95-4849-A73F-2B4F082F0C44.jar!/sdk/doc_source/reference/reference-cpp/Kernel_Architecture_2/e32cmn.hGlobals.html#%3a%3aTDesC" format="application/java-archive">TDesC</xref></codeph>) |
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27 instead. Descriptor objects provide a flexible interface for manipulating |
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28 the contained string, including size and length checks. Take advantage of |
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29 these when possible.</p> |
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30 <p>For more information and examples, see the <xref href="GUID-0817AD1D-58CF-5108-ACBF-26DFD4BA395E.dita">Descriptors |
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31 Overview</xref> topic.</p> |
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32 </conbody></concept> |