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From: johnb@srchtec.UUCP (John Baldwin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Passing by reference (was Re: C++ coding standards)
Keywords: standard,variables
Message-ID: <176@srchtec.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 90 12:01:46 GMT
References: <183@logo.procase.UUCP> <15361@reed.UUCP> <3233@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Organization: search technology, inc.
Lines: 36

In article <3233@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM> rogerson@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM
 (Dale Rogerson) writes:

>In article <15361@reed.UUCP> minar@reed.bitnet (Nelson Minar) writes:
>>... I find it really nice to know in C that ... The function can't be
>>changing the value of that variable ... 
>
>>Is there any sort of nice convention to make this easier to deal with?

>If you have well chosen filenames and classnames and provide good header 
>files this should not be too bad in C++.
> [more excerpted]
>
>The best solution is probably to get a good code browser which would get you
>the function prototype at the press of a key. This requires no changes to
>the language definition.  It might require coding practice changes.
>-----Dale Rogerson-----

Another practice which may help in debugging/understanding code, especially
interrelated code written by different authors, is the aggressive use of
the "const" modifier.  Not only does it inform the compiler about what your
intentions are (as far as what you do/do-not intend to modify), but we've
found it's very useful in letting other programmers know what other code
can or can't do (without having to wade through all the source code).

Another interesting effect (previously noted on this newsgroup) is that
once you start using "const,"  it starts percolating through all your
source and header files, as the compiler starts flagging places where
something you declared "const" could be changed.  Here, we are beginning
to find this has beneficial side effects.

-- 
John T. Baldwin                      |  johnb@srchtec.uucp
Search Technology, Inc.              |  johnb%srchtec.uucp@mathcs.emory.edu
standard disclaimer:                 | "... I had an infinite loop,
opinions and mistakes purely my own. |  but it was only for a little while..."