Re: [boost] Re: Review: Boost Coding Guidelines

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-07-19 06:13:42

From: "David Abrahams" <david.abrahams_at_[hidden]>
> Just to clarify, since many people seem to have missed this point which I
> think is spelled out clearly at the very beginning of the document in
> question:
>
> THE PROPOSED GUIDELINES ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCEPTANCE
> OF A LIBRARY

Thank you.

Review comments:

* The guidelines, on the whole, are excellent.

* The introduction section is not clear. People tend to miss crucial points.
I suggest a subtitle "Guidelines are not requirements" that states

This document does not contain requirements for boost. [IOW without the "not
intended to" part.]

* The guidelines are both too strict and too relaxed for my taste.

Many guidelines try to impose a specific writing and formatting style. IMHO
"write readable code" is better than "write code _this_ way, no matter
whether the end result is readable or not."

On the other hand, control structure clauses are allowed to be non-blocks.
This is more error-prone.

* an implicit conversion to "void const *" allows (?) the object to be used
in a delete expression.

* 15.4 and 1.7 conflict.

I vote "yes."

--
Peter Dimov
Multi Media Ltd.