ajbennieston/cpp

An open C++ course

cpp's Issues

Change < 3 to < 4

Day 2, page 9

C++11: Add thread local storage duration

In C++11, thread local joins static, dynamic and automatic storage durations.

Deprecated conversions from string literal to char*; change to const char*

e.g. day 2, page 8

Use C++11 initialisation to avoid "most vexing parse"

... and discuss this syntax in the footnote dedicated to the MVP.

Fix example of testing stream state when doing repeated reads

We're testing in.eof() but probably shouldn't be.

See:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4324441/testing-stream-good-or-stream-eof-reads-last-line-twice
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4939251/cin-eof-functionality

Link to cppreference.com

(Instead of SGI's STL pages)

Add discussion of alternate form of op+, etc.

Already show:

T operator+(const T& lhs, const T& rhs)
{
  T tmp(lhs);
  tmp += rhs;
  return tmp;
}

Should also mention:

T operator+(T lhs, const T& rhs)
{
  return lhs += rhs;
}

And be careful to point out the difference in parameter types (i.e. lhs is a copy, rhs is a reference)

Add 'true' and 'false' as boolean literals

They are literals, and also keywords...

(Page 8, day 1)

C++11: Use nullptr to initialise pointers instead of 0 or NULL

Hopefully NULL isn't used anywhere, but 0 definitely is. Use nullptr to initialise all pointers (except those that already get initialised to something meaningful) in order to demonstrate C++11.

Tables look ugly. Fix them.

LaTeX can make beautiful tables. The ones in these notes are awful. Make them look better!

s/template class/class template/g

Replace any occurrences of "template class" with "class template" (if any).

Consider re-working the pointer section

Perhaps describe iterators first, then say that a pair of pointers can act as iterators, then explain pointers properly?

Fix shadowing example

In day2/code/01-shadowing.cpp the example given produces a compiler error due to redefinition; need a better example that actually shows shadowing.

The code file has a FIXME comment to this effect.

notes-2011-fixed-day1

Avoid term "pass by pointer"

s/template function/function template/g in day 4

C++11: fstream constructor now accepts std::string

As of C++11, there is a constructor for basic_fstream that accepts string arguments. This is in addition to the C++98 constructor that accepts const char* arguments.

Constructing fstream objects is discussed in the day 4 notes, but there could be other instances where this can be updated.

Consider showing that friends can be defined inline

(Which saves pain with templates)

C++11: Use auto in limited scenarios where appropriate

Use auto where appropriate, e.g. for iterators or other complex types. Avoid using it everywhere, since the code is meant to provide an example, rather than actually be compiled and used, so having type information visible is useful.

Change cat example to 2 vector

With member functions for both cartesian and polar coordinates
(Day 3, page 12)

Fix incorrect statement on day 2 page 12

"A constructor must be called" (middle of page) is wrong, e.g.

string s = "Test";

"Integers modulo n" - good template & op. overloading example

e.g. n as template param.

Add more information to details on how to clear an input stream

cin.clear() followed by cin.ignore() is a fairly standard approach. Using streamsize max is also fairly standard. One alternative would be to use cin.rdbuf()->in_avail() i.e. the number of characters in the input buffer.

See:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2573435/clearing-cin-input-is-cin-ignore-not-a-good-way

Split out code from text

• Split all of the code samples out into separate files
• Write script to include the marked section(s) into the TeX source on build
• Write surrounding code to make each piece of code complete
• Write Makefile to build each piece of code so it can be (automatically) checked for correctness

Mention RAII in day 3 notes

Make sure footnote markers appear after full stops

In some cases (e.g. day 4 notes) they are currently before the stop, and look bad.

Fix overfull hboxes

Some of the pages of the notes have overfull hboxes (text running into the right margin, and beyond). Fix this.

Consider removing (or moving) the section on "switch"