Re: why not use naked delete ?

From:
Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:10:02 -0600
Message-ID:
<m7vbbm$sni$1@dont-email.me>
On 12/30/2014 4:13 PM, ?? Tiib wrote:

On Tuesday, December 30, 2014 11:32:33 PM UTC+2, Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 12/29/2014 10:29 PM, Richard wrote:

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> spake the secret code
<m7s3fr$df9$1@dont-email.me> thusly:

We use new and delete a lot in our base classes since we are memory
constrained in the Win32 environment.


By "memory constrained" am I to infer you are talking about stack
space?


We run out of Win32 space if we are not careful. Probably heap space
since some of our datasets go over one GB. Things are better
not though since we started compressing strings in memory.

Why naked new and not std::unique_ptr<> or some sort of container?


This code was written over a decade ago and works well. Never rewrite
code that is working well just to use new coding features.


There is difference between writing:
  "We used new and delete a lot in our base classes that we wrote over
   decade ago."
Or:
  "We use new and delete a lot in our base classes since we are memory
   constrained in the Win32 environment."

First is common, lot of people did it over decade ago. Second is
intriguing because writing naked 'new' and 'delete' in modern C++
adds complexities (and so defects) but does not save resources.


So how would you implement this class without using new? Here is the class and constructor using a reference value:

class DesValue : public ObjPtr
{
public:

    int datatype; // Either #Int, #Real, or #String.
    int vectorFlag; // Flag indicating value contains an Array.
    int optionListName; // name of the optin list item
    int * intValue; // Either nil, an Int, a Real, a String, or an Array thereof.
    double * doubleValue;
    string * stringValue;
    vector <int> * intArrayValue;
    vector <double> * doubleArrayValue;
    vector <string> * stringArrayValue;
    unsigned char * compressedData;
    unsigned long compressedDataLength;
    vector <unsigned long> uncompressedStringLengths;
    std::string * uncompressedString;
    int isTouched; // Flag indicating if value, stringValue, or units have been modified since this DesValue was created. Set to
true by setValue, setString, setUnits, and convertUnits.
    int isSetFlag; // Flag indicating whether the contents of the DesValue is defined or undefined. If isSet is false, getValue
returns nil despite the contents of value, while getString and getUnits return the empty string despite the contents of stringValue
and units.
    int unitsValue; // current string value index in $UnitsList (single or top)
    int unitsValue2; // current string value index in $UnitsList (bottom)
    string errorMessage; // message about last conversion of string to value
    string unitsArgs; // a coded string of disallowed units

public:

       // constructor
    DesValue ();
    DesValue (const DesValue & rhs);
    DesValue & operator = (const DesValue & rhs);

       // destructor
    virtual ~DesValue ();

    virtual DesValue * clone () { return new DesValue ( * this); }
....
}

DesValue::DesValue (const DesValue & rhs)
{
    datatype = rhs.datatype;
    vectorFlag = rhs.vectorFlag;
    optionListName = rhs.optionListName;
    if (rhs.intValue)
    {
        intValue = new int;
        * intValue = * rhs.intValue;
    }
    else
        intValue = NULL;
    if (rhs.doubleValue)
    {
        doubleValue = new double;
        * doubleValue = * rhs.doubleValue;
    }
    else
        doubleValue = NULL;
    if (rhs.stringValue)
    {
        try
        {
            stringValue = new string;
            * stringValue = * rhs.stringValue;
        }
        catch (std::bad_alloc &ba)
        {
            char msg [1024];
            sprintf_s (msg, sizeof (msg),
                "A memory error has occurred that could not be handled.\n"
                "Please try the operation again.\n\n"
                "Message: %s\n"
                "Size: %d bytes", ba.what (), rhs.stringValue -> size ());
            alert (msg);
        }
    }
    else
        stringValue = NULL;
    if (rhs.intArrayValue)
    {
        intArrayValue = new vector <int>;
        * intArrayValue = * rhs.intArrayValue;
    }
    else
        intArrayValue = NULL;
    if (rhs.doubleArrayValue)
    {
        doubleArrayValue = new vector <double>;
        * doubleArrayValue = * rhs.doubleArrayValue;
    }
    else
        doubleArrayValue = NULL;
    if (rhs.stringArrayValue)
    {
        stringArrayValue = new vector <string>;
        * stringArrayValue = * rhs.stringArrayValue;
    }
    else
        stringArrayValue = NULL;

    if (rhs.compressedData && rhs.compressedDataLength)
    {
        unsigned long num = rhs.uncompressedStringLengths.size ();
        if (vectorFlag && num)
        {
                // if a vector of strings, copy the uncompressed string lengths
            uncompressedStringLengths.resize (num);

            for (unsigned long i = 0; i < num; i++)
                uncompressedStringLengths [i] = rhs.uncompressedStringLengths [i];
        }

            // copy the size of the compressed data
        compressedDataLength = rhs.compressedDataLength;

            // allocate and copy the compressed data
        compressedData = (unsigned char *) malloc (rhs.compressedDataLength);
        if ( ! compressedData)
            alert ("DesValue::DesValue (const DesValue &) - unable to malloc " +
                    asString (rhs.compressedDataLength) + " bytes");
        memcpy_s (compressedData, rhs.compressedDataLength,
                    rhs.compressedData, rhs.compressedDataLength);
    }
    else
    {
        compressedData = NULL;
        compressedDataLength = 0;
        uncompressedStringLengths.resize (0);
    }

    if (rhs.uncompressedString)
    {
        uncompressedString = new std::string;
        * uncompressedString = * rhs.uncompressedString;
    }
    else
        uncompressedString = NULL;

    isTouched = rhs.isTouched;
    isSetFlag = rhs.isSetFlag;
    unitsValue = rhs.unitsValue;
    unitsValue2 = rhs.unitsValue2;
    errorMessage = rhs.errorMessage;
    unitsArgs = rhs.unitsArgs;
}

Lynn

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