Re: Introductory Presentations, especially aimed at C++ programmers!

["G.B." <bauhaus@notmyhomepage.invalid>]

On 09.12.16 02:30, Paul Rubin wrote:
> I would say that C++ is stronger in this area than Ada, since it has
> dynamically sized strings in the STL container library.  You'd use those
> instead of fixed-size buffers, so there's no way to overflow except OOM.

But can you pass std::string to the functions of Win32?

(I'm curious about the specifics in this example, since, e.g.,
RegQueryValueEx has a usage protocol associated with it and
seems to not produce an overflow of the BYTE far* buffer.)

Also, I think that the STL still requires discipline when
one uses indexing. This little playground can produce a number
of results that only prompt a cliché:
"any competent programmer will avoid any of these mistakes"...


void reorder(std::string& s) {
     using str = std::string;

     const str::const_iterator right_end = s.end();
     const str::const_reverse_iterator left_end = s.rend();
     str::iterator lr;
     str::reverse_iterator rl;

     for (lr = s.begin(), rl = s.rbegin() - 1;
	 lr != right_end && rl != left_end;
	 lr += 2, rl += 2)  // or try `rl -= 2`
     {
	*(lr + 2) = *lr;
	*(rl + 2) = *rl;	// and `rl - 2`
     }
}

Segfaults, null characters, and some harder to test
algorithmic errors, depending on variation.

-- 
"HOTDOGS ARE NOT BOOKMARKS"
Springfield Elementary teaching staff