Re: [boost] Re: in/out parameters, codingstylesandmaintenance

From: Noel Yap (Noel.Yap_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-05-04 17:47:48

"Justin M. Lewis" wrote:
> Again, you're addressing the specifics of an example, rather than the idea
> itself.  You can see the point, and you have to realize that in real life,
> situations come up where you have an object that can't be copied, but you
> still want to use, and pass around to functions.

Again, the point is that out parameters aren't necessary.  You and
others may see a lot of them in your code.  IMHO, without seeing the
rationale behind the decision, the code you see is messy because of the
out parameters.  I also think this is why you're having such a hard time
tracking down variable changes.

For example:

  double d = sqrt( x );

is much easier to comprehend than:

  sqrt( x, d );

You seem to want to band-aid the latter with:

  sqrt( in( x ), out( d ) );

which will, indeed make it a little clearer, but I think it's still not
better than the former.

Noel