RE: [boost] Re: Re: class proposal

From: Justin M. Lewis (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-04-23 17:10:52

It's not always that easy to give a function a name that will tell you
at invocation time which of it's parameters it's planning on changing,
and, it would be hard to tell people through just a function name that a
parameter is an in/out parameter.

As for a function returning a single param, I agree, normally you'd just
return it, UNLESS it's some big structure you don't want being copied
all over the place, then passing it by reference to a function makes
more sense.

Or, in the case I originally created this for, I had a function that
initialized an object to begin a transaction, I wanted to pass an object
into my function, and have it properly initialized to start a
transaction.  Anyway, in that case, InitRequest makes it pretty clear
that the object being passed is going to be modified, but by making it a
c_out param, there's NO question, it's explicit at the invocation.

-----Original Message-----
From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden]
[mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Bo Persson
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 11:32 AM
To: boost_at_[hidden]
Subject: [boost] Re: Re: class proposal

"Justin M. Lewis" <boost_at_[hidden]> skrev i meddelandet
news:00bf01c309b6$05a170f0$0500000a_at_justinslaptop...
> Not entirely, passing a pointer doesn't tell you that the parameter
will
> change, it just tells you that it might, it still leaves you in the
position
> of having to track down the function and check it.  But outside of
that,
if
> you're like me, at this point you prefer references to pointers,
whenever
> possible.

The obvious solution is of course to name the function so that you can
tell
what is does! :-)

A function returning a single value, should really RETURN the value and
not
update a parameter:

y = year_of_first_marriage();

Having a function lying about its purpose should be caught at its
definition, not at each call of the function:

void will_never_change_any_parameters_honest(int& x) { x = 7; }

is easy to catch early. :-)

Bo Persson
bop2_at_[hidden]

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Vincent Finn" <vincent.finn_at_[hidden]>
> To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 2:09 AM
> Subject: [boost] Re: class proposal
>
>
> > >
> > > void func(int &x){x = 1977;};
> > >
> > > void blah()
> > > {
> > >   int y=0;
> > >   func(y);
> > >   func2(y);
> > >   printf("%d\n", y);
> > > }
> > >

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