BString Constructor with negative maxLength arg should copy entire string.

[jscipione]

I ran the following program in Haiku and BeOS R5.

#include <String.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
	BString string1 = BString("string 1");
	printf("String 1 is: %s\n", string1.String());

	BString string2 = BString("string 2", 100);
	printf("String 2 is: %s\n", string2.String());
	
	BString string3 = BString("string 3", 0);
	printf("String 3 is: %s\n", string3.String());
	
	BString string4 = BString("string 4", -1);
	printf("String 4 is: %s\n", string4.String());

	return 0;
}

In Haiku I get:

String 1 is: string1

String 2 is: string2

String 3 is:

String 4 is:

In BeOS R5 I get:

String 1 is: string1

String 2 is: string2

String 3 is:

String 4 is: string4

So there is an incompatibility that should be fixed. The BString constructor with a negative maxLength argument should return the entire string, not a blank string.

[jscipione]

Screenshot of program in BeOS R5 demonstrating the incompatability

[axeld]

Dano even crashes at "String 4". Since this behavior is not documented at all, and obviously not even working in all BeOS versions, I would be inclined to live with that deviation.

[jscipione]

Replying to axeld:

Dano even crashes at "String 4". Since this behavior is not documented at all, and obviously not even working in all BeOS versions, I would be inclined to live with that deviation.

I would be okay with closing this bug with status WONTFIX. A note in the Haiku Book in the BString() constructor could be helpful though.

[jscipione]

A note indicating the inconsistency between the BeOS R5 and Haiku BString contructor when a negative maxLength argument is passed in has been added to the Haiku Book. We don't want to copy BeOS R5 in this instance since the functionality was not consistent across BeOS releases anyway.