Re: [Freeglut-developer] Menu bug?

[Richard R. <sf...@ol...>]

On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 01:56:24PM -0600, Stephen J Baker wrote:
> Richard Rauch wrote:
> 
> >>(2) I agree.  I also would like to take out the "!= NULL".
> >
> >I'll add that to my mental list of things to cull as I go, then.
> 
> It's a matter of taste - but I tend to go though putting those INTO
> the code while I'm tidying it up!

I think that if the code had read:

  return_if_fail( ptr1 || ptr2 );

...rather than:

  return_if_fail( ptr1 != NULL || ptr2 != NULL );

...the slip of reasoning would not have occurred.


> Without the !=NULL thing, a pointer tends to look like a boolean (which
> it isn't).

C doesn't have a real boolean.  You have to imagine a boolean, which can be
done as well with a pointer as with an int or char, etc.

Though even with C++, I prefer this approach.  Maybe my old roots as a
long-standing C programmer are showing.  I find it cleaner and clearer,
since there is a distinguished "invalid" pointer and it acts like a "false"
value, and the compiler "automatically" does this check for you.

I think of it as overloading the if() expression (or overloading the
truth-testing of an expression) in a natural manner.


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/