Can anyone explain what `kotlin.native.ImmutableBlob` is and how to use it?

# kotlin-native

[natario1]

Can anyone explain what kotlin.native.ImmutableBlob is and how to use it?

[Dominaezzz]

It's a compile time byte array. Think global const char array[40]; from C.

[natario1]

What does it provide that one could not do with a ByteArray for instance? The name blob seems to suggest that it is designed to deal with large arrays, but then in which way does it help?

I'm also confused by the word "compile-time". Seems like you can create one anytime you want with immutableBlobOf().

[Dominaezzz]

"compile time" was the wrong term. Global and static. iirc there are restrictions on where you can call immutableBlobOf.

I've never used it myself so. 🤷🏼

[natario1]

Yeah well compile-time is used in the documentation as well, so it's not your fault 😄 thanks a lot.

I have found this issue which adds some info: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-19787 seems like it was meant to be a hackish way to embed read-only resources into the final executable, but it's still not working well because compilation is very slow.