[bt-devel] Programming Techniques

[Matt Andrews]

--- David White <dave@whitevine.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Martin has asked me to become a BibleTime developer,
> and I have accepted
> his offer. In particular, he wants me to look over
> the BibleTime code,
> and make comment on it's robustness, style, and
> adherence to good C++
> standards, since I have a good deal of experience
> with C++ and knowledge
> about it. I just thought I'd write this email to
> introduce myself to
> everyone on the list, and to offer a few initial
> suggestions of things
> that could be done to improve the BibleTime code
> base.
Welcome, and thanks for helping us.

> A key technique I want to introduce is Resource
> Acquisition Is
> Intialization (RAII). It's a technique invented and
> popularised by
> Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++. BibleTime has
> alot of code that
> looks something like this:
> 
> {
>     Object* ob = new Object();
>     ...do stuff with ob....
>     delete ob;
> }
> 
> now, firstly, if possible ob should not be allocated
> on the heap like
> that, it should be allocated on the stack, as in:
> 
> {
>     Object ob;
>     ...do stuff with ob...
> }
> 
> this is because it is quicker (heap allocations are
> slow, stack
> allocations are fast), easier to read, less code,
> and there is no hope
> of there being a memory leak.
Oh hey, that's cool. I wish my professors would teach
stuff like that.

/*
 * Stuff about exceptions
 */
Exceptions good. 

/*
 * A whole bunch of stuff my brain is still trying to
dissect
 */
Umm, ok.

> 
> One minor point, I have put all this in the
> namespace util. So you have
> to go util::scoped_resource etc. I notice that
> BibleTime doesn't use
> namespaces at the moment, but I suggest we consider
> changing this.
> namespaces are a cool feature that allows much
> better division of code.
What are ways we would use namespace is this instance?
Would we use Sword::CClass instead of CSwordClass?


=====
"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory" - Colossians 1:27

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