Perhaps you could actually mention what class "name" is, considering there are several "c_str" methods depending on whose library you are using.

sounds to me like the STL string c_str() method, which returns a C string

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcstdlib/html/vclrf_string_basicstringcstr.asp

So the question is not: what does c_str do, but how did you get your hands on an STL-type string from within Delphi :)

I think you better post some more of that code-fragment you are trying to translate here. Unless you are using string-classes (as opposed to basic string types) in your Delphi project too, you probably don't need it... at all.

Not necessarily. The point I was trying to make is: name is some sort of string object (instance of a custom string class, as opposed to a simple type), it's up to you wether you want to implement it that way or not.

So here is your two options:

1. Make "name" a simple Delphi string. That would leave c_str redundant, so GetName would simply return name. Assuming you are in a class here, you'll probably want to make it a property Name returning fName. Unless they are doing very tricky things with that string object, I think this would be your best bet. Delphi strings support is pretty good.

2. Stick to the same design as the code you are trying to port, and implement a string class that has all the usual string functions (i.e. the string functions that are used in the doom3 code in particular) as class members. So something like:

type  TString = class( TObject )  private    fValue: String;  public   function c_str: String;   end;...function TString.c_str: String;begin  result := fValue;end;

Then again, if you would like the code to be more Delphi-style you probably would want to kick out the c_str function, and replace it with a default property called Value.