Technical Difficulties from on Top of the Mountain: Radical ideas for C++

Technical Difficulties from on Top of the Mountain

2004-08-19

Radical ideas for C++

I tend to get the most millage out of C++ ideas when they're really out there. Like combining smart_ptr's and iterator's, I use that all the time now and it makes iterating through sets two or three lines of code. Tonight, however, I reached my limit on writing the same old:

  if (p) p-> func() ;

There's got to be a way of making a NULL safe pointer. You can already delete NULL if you want to, no harm there. How about letting us deref NULL or call it: NULL-> func() which of course would do nothing. Fine, there's some implementation details to work out, like what's the return type for * NULL, but if I can just cut out 90% of my

  return (p) ? * p : NULL ;

I'll be happy. Time to put the old thinking hat on.

¶ 10:00 PM

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Life in the middle of nowhere, remote programming to try and support it, startups, children, and some tinkering when I get a chance.

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