[Development] Deprecating QString::{v,}sprintf()

[Olivier Goffart]

On Tuesday 21 February 2012 14:03:26 Marc Mutz wrote:
> On Tuesday February 21 2012, Marc Mutz wrote:
> > On Tuesday February 21 2012, Marc Mutz wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > The QString header contains a ### about removing sprintf() in 5.0, but
> > > it's still there. I'd like to deprecate them.
> > > 
> > > I have a long-standing hate of the fact that QString::sprintf() is not
> > > static, so my preferred solution would be to make it static, but that
> > > silently breaks existing usage other than the idiomatic
> > > QString().sprintf().
> > > 
> > > Unless there's a clever technique by which we can at compile-time catch
> > > non-static uses of sprintf(), I'd propose to just deprecate it.
> > 
> > Actually, I just found GNU's asprintf() extension ("allocated-string
> > printf"), arguably a better name for QString::sprintf() anyway. So I'll
> > upload a patch to Gerrit that will:
> > 
> > 1. Deprecate QString{v,}sprintf()
> > 2. Add static QString::{v,}asprintf()
> 
> https://codereview.qt-project.org/#change,17062
> 
> The patch also nicely highlights how and where QString().sprintf() is used
> in Qt itself, because it adjusts all callers.
> 
> Before vetoing the patch on the grounds of C-style API, please remember that
> this functionality is required for qDebug() and that we want to keep SiC as
> much as possible for 5.0. A C++11-style framework is a lot more work, and
> not something I'd expect to land in 5.0.
> 
> My main drive is the embarrassment of having sprintf not static.

Is that so much of a problem of it non being static?
Why not just keeping it as it is?

(else, you could also deprecate it from the public API, but keep it in the 
private API for qDebug)