Re: If GC is the solution, then what is the problem?
Bob Bell wrote:
marius lazer wrote:
Bob Bell wrote:
Of course not; I thought it was obvious that I didn't mean the effort
of typing the string "pqr<>"; I meant that the effort of designing,
implementing, testing, and maintaining pqr<> is extra coding.
The only effort is in design where it should be.
Implementation/test/maintenance apply to any application no matter what
design decisions they make and I think a solid design will improve all
those aspects (GC or not).
I can't tell if you're missing the point or not. I'm not talking about
designing, implementing, maintaining, and testing an application that
uses a smart pointer template. I'm talking about the smart pointer
template itself. The effort of creating and maintaining the smart
pointer template is not present when you use garbage collection. That's
the "extra coding" I was talking about. I don't know how to express
this any clearer.
This is an odd statement to make; if you turn it around, you get "the
effort of creating and maintaining the garbage collector is not present
when you use smart pointers". It looks silly in its mirrored form, so
why should it make sense as is? :-)
Of course some C++ programmers do have the tendency to reimplement the
basics for predictability and control reasons. And it's admittedly more
likely for them to reimplement a smart pointer family than a garbage
collector. But still. :-)
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