Re: Why use C++?

[Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com>]

On 08/13/11 09:15 PM, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 02:53:32 -0500, Jed wrote:
>> "Dmitry A. Kazakov"<mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>  wrote:
>
>>> BTW, if you aim at this application domain, note endianness and encoding
>>> stuff. You have very little chance that int is the type the protocol or
>>> hardware uses.
>>
>> Picking on int?
>
> int, long, unsinged represent an example of wrong language design. The
> point was that the semantics of an [integer] must be derived from the
> application domain.

They are an example of a specific language design decision, not a wrong 
one.  It's pretty rare for the application domain to be concerned about 
the semantics of an integer beyond those specified by the language.  In 
those rare cases where it does, the language provides a means of doing 
so though user defined types.

>>> In each such case I will have to use a type different from the machine
>>> type. This is just another argument why types need to be precisely
>>> specified. I addressed this issue above.
>>
>> But they are precisely specified on any given platform.
>
> 1. They are not. In order to see the specification of int, you have to read
> the compiler documentation. My point was that the program code does not
> specify the properties of int. The answer that it is defined somewhere
> somehow is not an argument at all, anything works in this or that way.

If you want to get the best performance out of a given platform (which 
many C and C++ programs do), you have to program to the characteristics 
of the platform.

> 2. I don't care about the platform, I care about what the program is
> supposed to do. The type's properties shall be defined by the application
> domain.

Can you give an example of where that would be an issues not solved by 
user defined types?

-- 
Ian Collins