Re: Help to remove reinterpret_cast from c++ code

From:
Ulrich Eckhardt <ulrich.eckhardt@dominolaser.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:22:14 CST
Message-ID:
<t6bk4a-kcv.ln1@satorlaser.homedns.org>
Am 24.04.2013 02:15, schrieb nvangogh:

Hi, I have been reading a class that I found online that creates an
object to represent a joystick. Now i recall reading that any use of
'reinterpret cast' is dangerous as it is highly machine dependent.


Yes, use of reinterpret_cast always has a code smell.

This is the offending member function definition:

[...]

void* cJoystick::loop(void *obj)
{
    while (reinterpret_cast<cJoystick *>(obj)->active)
reinterpret_cast<cJoystick *>(obj)->readEv();
}

pthread_create(&thread, 0, &cJoystick::loop, this);


Ah, and it is even used wrongly. The conversion from "this" to "void*"
is equivalent to a static_cast. In the loop function, it should do
this:

     cJoystick* js = static_cast<cJoystick*>(obj);
     while(...)
         ...

Of course, with modern C++ there's std::thread and thus no reason to
use the raw POSIX thread interface at all. Doing so would hide this
cast.
That said, the code smells in many other aspects:
   - exception safety
   - Law of Three
   - not checking returnvalues/errorcodes
   - not synchronizing access to resources shared between threads
   - use of nonstandard __u8 types that should be uint8_t
   - C-style casts
   - public functions loop() and readEv() should be private
   - const correctness of buttonPressed()

Uli

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