Re: [Boost-users] Library Interface Design

From: Arkadiy Vertleyb (vertleyb_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-09-12 09:49:02

"Scott Meyers" <usenet_at_[hidden]> wrote

>   EvengLog log;
>   log.WriteEntry("Hello World");    // throws: no log stream was set

I think the biggest argument for the compile-time error detection has always 
been something like:

EvengLog log;

if (some runtime condition)
  log.WriteEntry("Hello World");

Then, this "some runtime condition" may never be tested, and the code will 
throw in production.

It seems to me that the worlds of OO and C++ split some time ago, and moving 
more and more appart.  The new OO books now use Java and C# for their 
examples.  OTOH, most of what's going on in C++ world now is related to 
language-specific features.  I got the impression that people from 
objectmentor are ready to substitute compile-time error detection with 
testing.  Of course they are familiar with the argument above, so for them 
it's probably not a big deal.

I think neither of approaches is clearly superior, both have benefits and 
drawbacks, and it depends on each particular user and task which one would 
work better.  But in general, I would vote for complete construction with 
default arguments and/or overloaded constructors for simplicity.

Regards,
Arkadiy