more_c++_idioms.pdf

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Preface

C++ has indeed become too "expert friendly" --- Bjarne Stroustrup, The Problem with Programming

[1]

,

Technology Review, Nov 2006.

Stroustrup's saying is true because experts are intimately familiar with the idioms in the language. With the increase in

the idioms a programmer understands, the language becomes friendlier to him or her. The objective of this open

original source(s) where possible; if you find a reference incomplete or incorrect, please feel free to suggest or make

improvements.

The world is invited to catalog reusable pieces of C++ knowledge (similar to the book on design patterns by GoF).

The goal here is to first build an exhaustive catalog of modern C++ idioms and later evolve it into an idiom language,

just like a pattern language. Finally, the contents of this book can be redistributed under the terms of the GNU Free

Documentation License.

Aimed toward: Anyone with an intermediate level of knowledge in C++ and supported language paradigms

Authors

€ Sumant Tambe•

talk

-- The initiator and lead contributor since July 2007.

2. Address Of

3. Algebraic Hierarchy

4. Attach by Initialization

5. Barton-Nackman trick

6. Base-from-Member

7. Boost mutant

8. Calling Virtuals During Initialization

9. Capability Query

10. Checked delete

11. Clear-and-minimize

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18. Construction Tracker

19. Copy-and-swap

20. Copy-on-write

21. Counted Body (intrusive reference counting)

22. Curiously Recurring Template Pattern

23. Detached Counted Body (non-intrusive reference counting)

24. Empty Base Optimization

25. Emulated Exception

26. enable-if

27. Envelope Letter

34. Fast Pimpl

35. Final Class

36. Free Function Allocators

37. Friendship and the Attorney-Client

38. Function Object

39. Generic Container Idioms

40. Include Guard Macro

41. Inline Guard Macro

42. Inner Class

43. Int-To-Type

50. Multiple Member Initialization

51. Member Detector

52. Named Constructor

53. Named External Argument

54. Named Loop (labeled loop)

55. Named Parameter

56. Named Template Parameters

57. Nifty Counter (Schwarz Counter)

58. Non-copyable Mixin

59. Non-member get

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65. Object Template

66. Overload Set Creation

67. Parameterized Base Class (Parameterized Inheritance)

68. Pimpl (Handle Body, Compilation Firewall, Cheshire Cat)

69. Policy Clone (Metafunction wrapper)

70. Policy-based Design

71. Polymorphic Exception

72. Recursive Type Composition

73. Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII, Execute-Around Object, Scoped Locking)

74. Resource Return

81. Shrink-to-fit

82. Small Object Optimization

83. Smart Pointer

84. Storage Class Tracker

85. Tag Dispatching

86. Temporary Base Class

87. The result_of technique

88. Thin Template

89. Traits

90. Type Erasure

generic interface to it.

€ State (Gamma et al.)

In pure object-oriented languages like Smalltalk, variables are run-time bindings to objects that act like labels.

Binding a variable to an object is like sticking a label on it. Assignment in these languages is analogous to peeling a

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contents with new one. Algebraic Hierarchy idiom uses delegated polymorphism to simulate weak variable to object

binding in C++. Algebraic Hierarchy uses Envelope Letter idiom in its implementation. The motivation behind this

idiom is to be able write code like the one below.

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