[boost] Re: static sized strings

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-05-13 05:34:06

John Nagle <nagle_at_[hidden]> writes:

>     If you're willing to accept a call to "new", you can just
> use std::string and reserve some initial size.  

It's not the same thing.  You might only be willing to accept a call
to "new" if things go beyond a certain length.  That's *usually* the
only reason I'd ever have a fixed-size buffer.  Very occasionally
I'll be in code that where I don't want to throw an exception, but
then a string that responds to overflow by throwing is no better.

> So you don't need that capabiilty in char_string.  char_string is
> for situations when you don't want to invoke dynamic allocation at
> all.  In desktop applications, that's not too common, but in real
> time work, inside operating systems, and in embedded applications
> it's not unusual.

I'm saying, it's almost always better to degrade performance
gracefully as the program's input grows than it is to introduce an
execution discontinuity like an exception (if possible).  In many of
those scenarios you've named, exceptions, like dynamic allocation have
been banned anyway for similar real and/or imaginary reasons.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com