XtVaCreateArgsList(3)

💖 XtVaCreateArgsList 💖

okay bestie so we're in the XT FUNCTIONS section of the manual and the whole vibe here is dynamically allocate a varargs list. like, that's literally the NAME, periodt.

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✨ SYNTAX ✨

first things first, you gotta invite the header in:

#include <X11/Intrinsic.h>

and here's the function signature, copy it exactly please, no typos, i'm watching:

XtVarArgsList XtVaCreateArgsList(XtPointer unused, ...);

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• unused — bestie. it's called unused for a reason. you must specify it as NULL. that's it. that's the whole job. it's giving decorative. it's giving placeholder. don't fight it. 🙈
• ... — the main character!!! ✨ this is your variable parameter list of resource name and value pairs. go off, queen, list them all.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does XtVaCreateArgsList actually do? it allocates memory 💅 and copies its arguments into a single list pointer, which you can then use with XtVaNestedList. yes, it's a whole collab situation.

the end of both lists is identified by a name entry containing NULL — so like, that's the periodt of the list, the little 🛑 that says "we're done here."

any entries of type XtVaTypedArg are copied as specified, without applying conversions. no glow-up, no transformation, they come out exactly how they went in. iconic behaviour honestly.

⚠️ okay this is the important bit, do NOT skip it: data passed by reference (including Strings) is not copied — only the pointers themselves get copied. so you, the caller, have to make sure that data stays valid for the lifetime of the created varargs list. that's on you, bestie. no cap. if it dies early, everything dies with it. 😭

and when you're done with the list? free it using XtFree. clean up after yourself, we love a tidy queen. 🧚

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface
• Xlib - C Language X Interface

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and that's the whole page, you ate that 💅✨

cute little sign-off: this is X Version 11, and it's libXt 1.3.1, dated as of the XtVaCreateArgsList(3) page itself. mwah. 🫶💜