Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Any reason to use C?

Author: Tom Likens

Date: 17:50:49 07/28/03

Go up one level in this thread


On July 28, 2003 at 19:00:41, Dieter Buerssner wrote:

>On July 28, 2003 at 18:26:29, Gerd Isenberg wrote:
>
>>References, function inlining and namespaces are enaugh to use C++.
>
>Gerd, references is enough for me, to avoid C++. In the "old days", when I read
>code with a function call, like foo(a), I was sure, that a will be the same
>after the function call, than before. With C++, I cannot be sure anymore. If I
>want to make a changable by a function call, I use &a in C. All pretty much self
>documenting. Not anymore in C++.
>
>It may even be a performance issue. I read your suggestion about the small
>inline functions vs. macros. I basically agree. But when using reference
>paramaters (your example did), things might be very different. This might make
>it very difficult or even impossible to make a good optimization for the
>compiler.
>
>Function inlining is part of the ISO C Standard of 1999. Not all compilers
>support it.
>
>Regards,
>Dieter

I'm a fan of C++ but I agree with this completely.  I made it a practice
long ago, that if the any routine changes the parameters passed to it
then the parameters need to be passed via a pointer.  Otherwise, there
is no visual indication that they are being altered, which is a no-no.
Any other policy, seems to invite subtle bugs.

That being said, I still believe the benefits of C++ outweigh the
negatives.  I love the STL and the entire concept of generic programming
provides tremendous power.  The real problem (IMHO) with C++ is that
there are large number of ways to blow your feet off with it.  It *is* a
complicated language and getting proficient requires a __serious__
investment of time.

regards,
--tom




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.