🚀 go-pugleaf

J. Kanze (kanze@gabi-soft.fr) wrote:
> In article <4kcrhk$aj1@hermes.acs.unt.edu> johnw@jove.acs.unt.edu (John
> R. Williams) writes:

>     [Concerning a warning for `new char( 10 )'...]
> |> I agree that it is uusual to allocate a single object of a built-in type 
> |> this way, but how do you propose to write this in such a way that such a 
> |> warning would not be generated? All I can think of is to warn when *any* 
> |> conversion occurs (this one looks pretty explicit to me), forcing you to 
> |> write something like this:

> |>   char *foo = new char(static_cast<char>(10));

> |> (Actually this rule doesn't seem too bad if applied only to built-in 
> |> types...)

> Let's see:

>     int*        pi = new int( static_cast< int >( 10 ) ) ;

> Do you want the compiler to warn if you omit the static_cast (of int to
> int)? 

What I meant (but perhaps did not make clear) is that the warning would 
only be in the case of *conversions* (and possibly promotions). In this 
case my rule would allow more comfortable syntax without a warning.

> I do not think that I have a single instance of allocation of an array
> in any of my code.  Why should you make the most frequent case the most
> difficult.  (And allocating a single int is not that infrequent.  You
> might look at the implementation of counted_ptr in Barton and Nackman,
> for example.  It is certainly more frequent than allocating an array of
> int's, at least in well written C++ code.)

I admit that since I get a copy of HP's STL I have almost entirely 
stopped using array new, but OTOH I can't remeber a single time I've 
allocated just one object of a built-in type. This suggests to me that
the issue is one of of style and context, not ability to program.

At any rate, I don't like my idea either--I was just throwing it out to 
see what people would think.

--
class JohnWilliams: public Student, public Programmer {
public:
  char const *operator&() const { return "johnw@jove.acs.unt.edu"; }
  char const *homepage () const { return "http://www.unt.edu/~johnw"; }
};


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