Re: How to understand the C++ specification?
On Jan 28, 6:24 pm, Noah Roberts <n...@nowhere.com> wrote:
Oh, and...
James Kanze wrote:
Getting the job done, in my case, means writing code that
works, and that can be maintained. I know that that's an
unusual requirement. It's much more fun to experiment.
I think you just proved my point. If you've never HAD to experiment
then you've simply never written anything particularly difficult. I
suppose you spent your entire learning period not experimenting too.
That's just sad.
Isn't it beautiful, people who like to play word games, instead
of worrying about real issues.
Obviously, I experiment. But I don't deliver experimental code.
And I don't need to look things up in the standard to
experiment, since I know that if I do, even if the experiment
works, I can't use it, because 1) my collegues won't understand
the code, and 2) it's likely that some compiler will not get it
right either (and in the end, what matters isn't what the
standard says, but what the compiler does). I don't experiment
with the language much (except for amusement); I have enough
other problems which have to be solved. (As one employer put
it: I'm not being paid to stress test the compiler. *IF* you're
employed to test a compiler for compliance, then of course you
will read the standard. A lot. But that's not the case of most
of us.)
Yes, I'm proud to admit that much of my knowledge comes from
experimenting, failing, and having to look at the standard to
see why what I'm doing is nonsense.
I fail to see how you can find out whether something is nonsense
by looking it up in the standard. (For that matter, the
standard is often "wrong", compared to the compilers I'm using.)
My knowledge came from years of hard work and many, many
mistakes. Where did yours come from?
Most of it comes from communicating with collegues. I've
learned an awful lot from other peoples mistakes. And vice
versa, of course. My collegues learn from my code. Which is
one of the reasons why it's so important to make it readable.
--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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