Changes per discussion with Anton

include/dart_api.h

Index: include/dart_api.h
===================================================================
--- include/dart_api.h	(revision 16135)
+++ include/dart_api.h	(working copy)
@@ -1463,6 +1463,22 @@
                                              const char** cstr);
 
 /**
+ * Gets the Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoded representation of a string.

[cshapiro, 2012/12/14 00:00:36]

This seems misleading, I would really like to see something change.

This API gets the contents of a OneByteString a.k.a. a Latin-1 string.  The
naming philosophy was to have To be reserved for conversions and this is not a
conversion, it will generate an error if the input cannot be encoded as Latin-1.

(Consider Dart_StringToUTF8 below.)

[siva, 2012/12/14 03:30:09]

I have changed the description here to word it to say it is not a conversion but
just a straight extraction of data and strings that are not latin1 strings will
get an error.

On 2012/12/14 00:00:36, cshapiro wrote:

+ *
+ * \param str A string.
+ * \param latin1_array Returns the String represented as Latin-1 characters
+ *   This array is scope allocated and is only valid
+ *   until the next call to Dart_ExitScope.

[antonm, 2012/12/14 01:31:59]

there are two flavours of string data fetching: Dart_StringToUTF16 which allows
caller to pass the buffer caller is managing and Dart_String~ToUTF8 where VM
allocates the buffer.

From my experience, _StringToUTF16 is by far more convenient as it least in my
case I need to copy those data away immediately anyway and hence I save on one
copy.

[siva, 2012/12/14 03:30:09]

I have changed Dart_StringToLatin1 to use the API similar to Dart_StringToUTF16
which should be more convenient for you.

Will try and change Dart_StringToUTF8 to also follow the same pattern in another
CL.

On 2012/12/14 01:31:59, antonm wrote:

[antonm, 2012/12/14 03:31:30]

Thanks!

On 2012/12/14 03:30:09, siva wrote:

+ * \param length Used to return the length of the array which was
+ *   actually used.
+ *
+ * \return A valid handle if no error occurs during the operation.
+ */
+DART_EXPORT Dart_Handle Dart_StringToLatin1(Dart_Handle str,
+                                            uint8_t** latin1_array,
+                                            intptr_t* length);
+
+/**
  * Gets a UTF-8 encoded representation of a String.
  *
  * \param str A string.
@@ -1517,6 +1533,9 @@
  *
  * \return the converted ExternalString object if no error occurs.
  *   Otherwise returns an error handle.
+ *   If the object is a valid string but if it cannot be externalized
+ *   then Dart_Null() is returned and the string data is copied into
+ *   the external space specified.
  *
  * For example:
  *  intptr_t size;