NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/lang/c++-part2/15523

Text File | 1996-08-05 | 3.5 KB | 95 lines

Path: news.ahc.ameritech.com!datalytics!usenet
From: Rob Stewart <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,rec.games.programmer,alt.msdos.programmer,comp.programming
Subject: Re: Young programmers read me.
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 18:32:36 -0500
Organization: Datalytics, Inc
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Aidan Cully wrote:
>
> In article <[e-mail]>,
> John Joseph Newbigin <[e-mail]> wrote:
> > I startted programming in BASIC.  Once I realised this was not a "real"
> > language I started using Pascal.  Once I realised Pascal sucks, I started
> > using C(++).  Now I would rather use BASIC than Pascal.  That must mean
> > BASIC is not dieing either?
> >  Newbs
>    C++ is an incredibly ugly language with some of the worst looking
> constructs I have ever seen(e.g., -> to dereference a pointer to a record?
> what about a handle? the way this is done is incredibly ugly and more than
> a little unreadable), and a really very counterintuitive #define block.
> If C were really a free form language, then the #define directive could
> not be used as it assumes certain things about syntax (i.e. rest of the
> line is to be used *only* for the #define block).

#define is a preprocessor macro and is not part of C.

> Add to this that C++
> does not follow one of the guiding principles of OOP (i.e. hiding the
> implementation from the user) by allowing people to see the private and
> protected members of classes,

There is a simple means of doing this:

header:

class X
{
   private:
      struct XRep;

      XRep* m_pRep;
};

implementation:

struct X::XRep
{
   // declare data members here
};

Now, all member functions of X access X's data members through
m_pRep.  Since XRep's declaration is only in the implementation
file (typically a .C or .cpp file), you can change it at will
with no effect on X's declaration.

Of course, you get performance losses with such a compilation
firewall.  That is, every data member access is done by
dereferencing a pointer, and all public and protected member
functions must not be inline.  Once you do these things, you
lose some of that performance advantage C++ offers.

> and I see one of the ugliest languages
> developed.

[snip]

>    I also think that speed is essential for most commercial applications,
> and this alone is what makes C/C++ a widely used Commercial application,
> but I get upset when people confuse "popular" with "good."  I'm writing a
> game in C++ right now because the speed is so good, but just as a
> programming language, it really blows.
>

There are idioms and patterns for most things you want to do
with C++ that alleviate much of what bothers you about the
language and that reduce errors and performance problems.  You
simply have to do a little reading and research to learn about
them.

You may not like the symbols used in C++, but I like the code
compression they provide.  Typing '{' is much faster than typing
'BEGIN.'  Readability is subjective; Greek is not readable until
you know the language.

--
Robert Stewart        | My opinions are usually my own.
Datalytics, Inc.    | [e-mail]