Re: [Plib-devel] C++ Philosophy Question

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Dave McClurg wrote:
> 
> I recently asked some related questions so i'll share what I know:
> 
> *** Naming conventions:
> 
> for public symbols in PLIB module 'XX' (where 'XX' is: SL, SSG, SG, PU, FNT):
> 
> #define's, enum tags                 XX_ALL_CAPITALS
> functions/classes/structs/typedefs   xxMixedCase
> 
> For private symbols, I use all_lowercase unless they would pollute
> the name space - in which case I use a leading underscore _xxMixedCase

Right.

> *** Dependencies
> 
> To use PLIB you need only GLUT, OpenGL and C++.
> keeping more dependencies out of PLIB is a design goal
> 
> STL would just be another dependency
> If you just need a list you can make it yourself
> like the ssgVertexArray

So far, nothing in STL seems worth the hassle. There are
still too many incompatible versions floating around out
there - and systems that don't have it installed, etc.

I watched the L-O-N-G thread that went on in the FGFS
mailing list when STL was first used.  It convinced me
that I can do without it.

I'm told that STL will be a part of the C++ standard in
the next revision of the ANSI spec - that means that it'll
be usable in a couple of years when all the older compilers
catch up.

Remember, portability is the number one goal of PLIB.

> *** templates, exceptions, references, operator overloading
> 
> like honey. icky sticky stuff.  can't see why pooh bears like it
> once in a while it can be handy but
> might as well keep it simple in a portable library like PLIB

Well, some of these things are just eye candy. (eg Operator
overloading) - some obfuscate code to a dangerous degree (eg
References) - others are STILL not portable enough for my
liking (Templates, exceptions).
 
> *** namespaces
> 
> i like them. any thoughts?

Still rather new.  Don't forget that people use PLIB
on systems like Solaris, MSVC 5, Irix 5.x - some of
those compilers are pretty old.
 
Having made all those excuses - I also have to confess
to being something of a minimalist when it comes to
coding.  C++ (like UNIX, OpenGL, HTML and others)
had 99% of what it needed in the very first version.

Once the design got out of the hands of the original
author, design-by-committee took over.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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