Re: "Linus Torvalds Was (Sorta) Wrong About C++"

From:
Mr Flibble <flibbleREMOVETHISBIT@i42.co.uk>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 11 Mar 2015 21:29:25 +0000
Message-ID:
<4eWdnb4jwNgpLp3InZ2dnUU7-KednZ2d@giganews.com>
On 11/03/2015 21:15, Paavo Helde wrote:

JiiPee <no@notvalid.com> wrote in news:Ie1Mw.381530$dX1.143786@fx21.am4:

int size = 10;
int* a = new int[size ];
float* b = new float[size ];
double* c = new double[size ];


This is not exactly equivalent to std::vector because the capacity and
efficient dynamic resizing are missing.

so in C we need total : 4 bytes overhead


16 bytes, if you want to compare correctly. Each pointer is an overhead.
And if you add capacities, it will make 28 bytes.

in C++:
vector<int> a = ...10);
vector<float> b = ...10);
vector<double> c = ..10).;

would need total: 36 bytes of overhead


If the vectors are always of the same length, then the solution is clear:

struct X {
      int a;
      float b;
      double c;
};

std::vector<X> x;

Voila: this has 12 bytes overhead, which is 4 bytes less than the C
version, plus it supports efficient dynamic resizing as a bonus, plus it
is not error-prone and exception-unsafe - an even bigger bonus. Q.E.D.


You could of course have a dynamic array of X also.

In my most humble opinion dynamic arrays should only be used for one
thing: allocating uninitialised buffers of char; use std::vector for
everything else..

/Flibble

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