A pointer is a variable that points to the memory location of another variable or an object. The pointer itself is also a variable???the difference between a pointer and another variable, or an object, is that while a variable or an object contains data, a pointer contains an address or
Preprocessors are programs that accept input and produce output that in turn becomes input for the next cycle. Preprocessor directives are statements in a program that are preceded by the hash sign (#). Such directives facilitate portability and conditional compilation of your source code. In this article we will explore
Entry-level rapid application development (RAD) tools have a deserved reputation for being low-grade, or robust and expensive, or free and missing key ingredients. At the same time, there is a pent-up demand for such tools from a host of folks — beginner developers, students, small development shops, non-profits, startups, and
n July 2009, the C++ standards committee voted into the C++0x Working Paper new attribute tokens that regulate the overriding of virtual functions in a derived class. These new attributes ensure that an overriding function matches its base class counterpart by signature and name. As trivial as it may seem,
ace conditions are an inherent part of parallel programming. A race condition exists any time a program’s behavior may depend on the relative ordering of events on separate threads. In the vast majority of cases, race conditions are harmless?the program works regardless of which thread gets a lock first, or
very declaration of an enum type must be a complete definition containing a full list of its enumerators. However, in some use cases declaring an enumeration without providing the enumerators list is desirable. For example, you may use a forward declaration like this… enum class Direction; …instead of repeating the
?year ago, everyone was all but certain that the C++0x standard was just around the corner, and that it would include concepts (see Danny Kalev’s earlier interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, from August 2008). However, In July 2009 the C++ standards committee decided to remove concepts from
hat were you doing during the morning hours (EST) of July 13th 2009? On that auspicious day, in a dramatic vote, the C++ standards committee decided to remove concepts from C++0x. Undoubtedly, this resolution will have a huge impact on C++. In this column I will outline the causes of
hen implementing a sequence of elements that needs to grow and shrink dynamically, std::vector is a fine choice. It provides the convenience of a standard container class, including automatic memory management, random access to elements, a uniform interface, and compatibility with standard algorithms. However, for a sequence whose size is