RE: (off-topic) RE: [Doxygen-users] Documenting IDL

[Victor A. W. Jr. <va...@ru...>]

I'll try to answer best I can......  replies in the text
At Friday 2001/06/08 06:53, you wrote:
>[Just found this sitting unsent in my outbox and its still an interesting C++
>issue, so:]
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dox...@li...
> > [mailto:dox...@li...]On Behalf Of Wagner,
> > Victor
> > Sent: 08 May 2001 14:16
> > To: 'dox...@li...'
> > Subject: RE: (off-topic) RE: [Doxygen-users] Documenting IDL
> >
> >
> > I didn't say operator int(), I said operator void* ().  There
> > is a large
> > difference.
>
>When starting this, I deliberately avoided addined an operator that could be
>mistakenly read as returning more information than it does - something that
>returns 'bool' is unambiguous, even the most neophyte "next new guy to 
>join the
>team" isn't going to try and cast it to anything (which sounds a bit rude and
>snotty, but it is exactly the sort of thing that has happened).
>
>So far as any other code is concerned, _what_ is this large difference? 
>The only
>use for this operator is in a test such as "if (ptr)" and bool seems to 
>fit that
>idea quite nicely.

But it isn't really a bool.  If you write operator bool() then it could be 
used anywhere a bool is valid (not just in if and while).
I'm just following several authors dictum (when in doubt, do what the built 
in types do...in this case, I consider the STL 'built in')


> > the problem of 'adding' your own test is that it isn't the same as:
> > real pointers
>
>Very true - for example, with 'real pointers' I wouldn't get upset if people
>wrote all their functions calls as Fum(MyPointer fred) whereas with 
>ref-counted
>pointers, for example, you want to write Fum(const MyPointer& fred). These are
>not 'real pointers' and sometimes it is good to be reminded of this (and
>sometimes it is bad).
>
> > STL iterators
>
>Well, I admit to not having tried to combine the two (remember, this all 
>started
>from old code, VC++2 days, which rather pre-dates a (working) copy of STL 
>being
>available). If (when?) it becomes necessary to combine the two, that does not
>preclude leaving in 'IsValid()' - after all, to be an iterator you just 
>need to
>provide the correct interface and after that you can add anything else you 
>want.
>
>One day, no doubt, the two will coincide, when someone wants to feed one of
>these pointers to an STL algorithm, at which time it would be useful to know
>what the large difference is between using operator bool() and operator void
>*() - does the former stop something working?
>
>Regards,
>Stephen Goudge

Victor A. Wagner, Jr.
PGP RSA fingerprint = 4D20 EBF6 0101 B069 3817 8DBF C846 E47A
PGP D-H fingerprint = 98BC 65E3 1A19 43EC 3908 65B9 F755 E6F4 63BB 9D93
The five most dangerous words in the English language:
               "There oughta be a law"