rodata in `std::str` may be an unfamiliar term

[mdinger]

In std::str, there is a typo. I don't know what rodata is supposed to be:

//! String literals are allocated statically in the rodata of the
                                                    ^ ~~~~~

[Gankra]

rodata is standard OS jargon for the Read-Only Data segment of a program. Or are you suggesting that they are in fact allocated elsewhere?

[mdinger]

No, I just didn't know what it meant. I'm familiar with read only but I definitely didn't recognize it as an acronym.

[gamazeps]

@mdinger I tried to make it more explicit that rodtaa is a section of the executable, do you think that it is clear enough ?

[mdinger]

Hmm...Overall I'm ambivalent I guess. Adding a period does suggest it's less likely to be misspelled (because methods sometimes are cryptic) but doesn't point toward what it might mean unless you already know.

I would probably just link to wikipedia or expand it in place to read-only data or rodata (read-only data). A search of the repository only shows one other hit of rodata so it's not commonly used term in rust docs. So, it's probably not critical that everyone understands the term.

[thestinger]

The fact that it's in the rodata section on some platforms is an implementation detail. The documentation should be sticking to information that's relevant to either the high-level semantics or the performance characteristics rather than throwing in trivia about the implementation.

[gamazeps]

@thestinger Honestly I think the notion of section really help to understand for C people (at least the people used to do bare-metal).

[thestinger]

Low-level programmers don't need help to understand how an immutable (ptr, len) view works. A semi-accurate statement about implementation details isn't helping anyone.

[gamazeps]

Well the other solution is to remove the statement totally if you want.
But honestly, when I read it (before this issue), it really helped ...

[thestinger]

I think it should be replaced with documentation explaining that string literals are immutable views with a static lifetime (&'static str) rather than meandering off into implementation details (which aren't actually guaranteed or portable).

[gamazeps]

@thestinger better ?