Why is bevy::core::Label a COW String?

[sdfgeoff]

I'm working on the blender_bevy_exporter which generates bevy scene files using Blender3D. I'd like to minimize the number of ""special" component types and use core types as much as possible (for meshes + materials, custom "loader" types are fine).

As such, I'd like to copy blender's name for objects into the "Name" field, but upon serializing an entity I get:

      {
        "type": "bevy_core::name::Name",
        "struct": {
          "hash": {
            "type": "u64",
            "value": 2656167464584161299,
          },
          "name": {
            "type": "alloc::borrow::Cow<str>",
            "value": "Test",
          },
        },
      },

I'd just like to raise the question of why the name struct is anything other than a plain-old "String"? It means i've defined my own:

/// Component that contains the name of the object
#[derive(Reflect, Default, Component, Debug)]
#[reflect(Component)]
pub struct BlendLabel {
    pub name: String,
}

Which feels a bit odd.

[bjorn3]

A Cow<str> allows avoiding an allocation if the string is fixed at compile time. The hash field exists to allow for faster comparisons I believe.

[mockersf]

the Name serialisation / deserialisation should be customised to not show the hash, it could expose itself as a simple String.

bevy/crates/bevy_core/src/name.rs

Lines 16 to 21 in d8974e7

	#[derive(Component, Debug, Clone, Reflect)]
	#[reflect(Component)]
	pub struct Name {
	hash: u64, // TODO: Shouldn't be serialized
	name: Cow<'static, str>,
	}

[cart]

Agreed