Re: Saving an XML file from VC++ application
"Doug Harrison [MVP]" <dsh@mvps.org> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:e29qu3tl2ohq44nd7gdvf3ac8j088f2ce4@4ax.com...
"Smart Pointers Are Too Smart"
http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2003/09/16/53016.aspx
That article is just a rant and has little if anything to do with smart
pointers; see replies from Brian and indranil for much needed rebuttal.
OK, I'll read these replies.
However, I think that smart pointers - like other things - are just *tools*,
and they have pros and cons.
I recall that in another thread - IIRC, about string class deep-copies vs
reference counted pattern - when I asked your opinion about performance, you
wrote a very wise thing, that we can summarize in the sentence: "It
depends".
There are pros and cons.
I think that smart pointers (and C++ templates in general) can help making
the code cleaner in some cases, but there could be also some problems in
other cases.
I don't agree very much in defining that blog post a "rant", IMHO.
The author has his own opinions, and he elaborates them, too...
Of course, everyone is free to not agree with the author's opinions...
Of
course, everyone has his own tolerance level for complexity, and mine lies
somewhere in the template metaprogramming realm,
You are clearly a C++ "lawyer" :) in the sense that you can "split a C++
hair into small pieces with a sword", meaning that you know lot of C++ in
lot of details, including rules, exceptions to rules, etc. You master C++ at
a very very advanced level, but I think that it is not common...
I think that your advanced C++ level is like that of those C++ gurus that
wrote Boost, or that can write libraries like STL implementations (*using*
STL is easier than being able to write an implementation of it! I can use
std::vector, std::map, boost::shared_ptr, etc. ...but being able to write
their implementations is completely different kind job.)
For me C++ is just a tool; I think that I have a good knowledge of it (more
than "C++ as a better C" level :), including basic templates and exceptions
and RAII, etc., but I'm absolutely not at the advanced level of e.g.
template metaprogramming.
As for the complexity of the ATL smart pointer call stack, yeah, that does
look extreme.
In fact!
Sometimes some C++ gurus write C++ code that is like a "baroque" or
"virtuoso" style, I mean, they of course master C++ at a very advanced
level, but I think they should write code also having maintenance in mind,
also thinking about readability, debuggability, etc.
Writing code just to show how they super-smart are about C++, is not good,
IMHO.
Giovanni