> Now that we use more and more C++, lack of "const" attribute on most midas functions is causing some 
> problems. I am now ready to commit changes to midas.h and odb.c that add the const attributes to ODB 
> access functions db_xxx(), i.e.
> INT db_rename_key(HNDLE hDB, HNDLE hKey, char *name)
> becomes
> INT db_rename_key(HNDLE hDB, HNDLE hKey, const char *name)
> 
> If we proceed with this conversion, and it does not cause major havoc, I can continue and "const"ify the 
> rest of midas.h. I note that the mxml functions appear to already have the correct "const" declarations.
> 
> P.S. Adding the "const" attribute caught a few places where we were modifying a "char*" string passed by 
> the caller. This is undesirable if we are passed a string literal, i.e. db_rename_key(...,"foo"), and it is a 
> complete disaster in conjunction with C++ strings, i.e. db_rename_key(...,foo.c_str())

I fully approve your idea. You are absolutely right that it also will help to prevent errors such as modifying
fixed strings. I was just too lazy to do that, because it requires some additional code like:

func(const char *p)
{
char str[256];

  strlcpy(str, p, sizeof(str));
  strlcat(str, ...)
} 

So if you do it, it's great!