Re: [boost] [Review] Shmem Library

From: me22 (me22.ca_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-09 19:23:48

On 2/9/06, Sebastian Redl <sebastian.redl_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Johan Johansson wrote:
> The reason is simple: call-by-reference and call-by-value have no
> visible difference at the call site, which could therefore make changes
> to the arguments unexpected.
>

supposing std::fstream myfile:
    int i;
    myfile >> i;
    myfile << i;
    char c;
    myfile.get(c);
It's not "myfile >> &i;", nor is it "myfile.get(&c);", and yet you
understand fine.

If I know what a function does--which is hopefully fairly obvious from
its name--then I know which are output parameters, and the & is just
an annoyance.  If I don't know what the function does, then I'll have
to look it up in documentation to find out, at which point I'll learn
what the parameters are for.  The & might be slightly useful were I
trying divination to figure out what the function does, but even
without that most non-gargantuan functions make it fairly clear which
are output parameters from context.

~ Scott