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<!DOCTYPE concept
  PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="GUID-772DFFA1-4BBC-516F-909D-47CB773760F5" xml:lang="en"><title>Packages as type-safe descriptors</title><shortdesc>Describes the package function to transfer data in correct
structure. </shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<p>Descriptors are often used as the basis of data transfer within
Symbian platform. For example, inter-thread data transfer is specified
in terms of transferring data from a descriptor valid in the context
of one thread, to a descriptor valid in the context of another.</p>
<p>Data to be transferred almost always has a well defined structure
and it is important that the receiver of the data has some guarantee
that the correct structure has been passed. This is type safety.</p>
<p>A package <i>is</i> a descriptor and also acts as a wrapper around
it. It allows objects and data structures to be represented by descriptors
in a type safe way. Objects are either contained within a modifiable
buffer descriptor or are represented by pointer descriptors.</p>
<p>A package class is templated, the template parameter being the
type of the object represented. The use of a template provides the
required type safety.</p>
</conbody><related-links>
<link href="GUID-79BAF19D-F003-5468-9C01-6E918B06C36D.dita">
<linktext>Descriptor concepts</linktext></link>
</related-links></concept>