On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 1:25 AM, Stefan Krah
In most cases it won't matter. However, a consumer is entitled to rely on shape==NULL in response to a PyBUF_SIMPLE request. Perhaps there is code that tests for shape==NULL to determine C-contiguity.
This is an example that might occur in C. You hinted at the fact that not all of this may be relevant for Java, but on that I can't comment.
Think about trying to specify the buffer protocol using only C++ references rather than pointers. In Java, it's a lot easier to say "this value must be a reference to 'B'" than it is to say "this value must be NULL". (My Java is a little rusty, but I'm still pretty sure you can only get NullPointerException by messing about with the JNI). I think it's worth defining an "OR" clause for each of the current "X must be NULL" cases, where it is legal for the provider to emit an appropriate non-NULL value that would be consistent with the consumer assuming that the returned value is consistent with what they requested. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia