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Groups > comp.lang.c++ > #87464

Re: What a reference actually is

From Paavo Helde <eesnimi@osa.pri.ee>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c++
Subject Re: What a reference actually is
Date 2022-11-20 00:37 +0200
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <tlbls5$3ad1l$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References (1 earlier) <e8f587a1-ac73-4b31-ad5f-5009c73ec4cfn@googlegroups.com> <tl7ju8$1bu7$1@gioia.aioe.org> <42d9be9e-99f9-45dc-9001-b74bfedd8107n@googlegroups.com> <tla0tm$367b9$2@dont-email.me> <1fa49f55-80ce-45de-80da-708da2ebc783n@googlegroups.com>

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19.11.2022 18:20 Michael S kirjutas:
> I don't know about your or Juha, but I personally draw a line at DRY.
> Features that help to DRY can be controversial, can be even harmful,
> (as many preprocessor macros) but they are not nutrient-free syntactic
>   sugar.
[...]
> C++ references do not help DRY at all, except if you consider  & here
> or * there as repeating yourself. And, IMHO, presence of references
> in the language makes understanding somebody else's code
> significantly harder.

That's strange, are you sure you mean the same DRY ("Don't repeat 
yourself")? Because with pointers you need to consider and repeat the 
fact that you are calling via a pointer at each call site, with 
references this is not so.

I agree the code might be hard to understand if references or pointers 
are abused for implementing "output parameters". But thankfully, C++ has 
perfectly fine ways to return multiple values from the function, so 
there is no need to abuse pointers or references for that purpose. And 
for normal input parameters references (const or rvalue) are just fine 
and often a much better choice than pointers.

Also, if you say presence of references is what makes C++ hard to 
understand, I start to suspect you haven't seen half of C++ yet. Look up 
any template code posts from Bonita, for starters ;-)

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Thread

What a reference actually is Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-11-17 09:01 +0000
  Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-17 06:09 -0800
    Re: What a reference actually is Paavo Helde <eesnimi@osa.pri.ee> - 2022-11-18 00:36 +0200
      Re: What a reference actually is JiiPee <kerrttuPoistaTama11@gmail.com> - 2022-11-18 07:49 +0200
      Re: What a reference actually is Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-20 05:48 -0800
    Re: What a reference actually is Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-11-18 09:40 +0000
      Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-18 03:23 -0800
        Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-18 05:11 -0800
        Re: What a reference actually is James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2022-11-19 02:34 -0500
          Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-19 08:20 -0800
            Re: What a reference actually is Paavo Helde <eesnimi@osa.pri.ee> - 2022-11-20 00:37 +0200
              Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-19 15:35 -0800
            Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-19 15:13 -0800
              Re: What a reference actually is "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2022-11-19 15:18 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-19 15:33 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-19 15:36 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-19 15:43 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-19 15:51 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-19 17:57 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2022-11-19 19:56 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-20 03:47 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-20 04:24 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-20 06:32 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2022-11-21 16:32 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2022-11-22 08:30 -0800
              Re: What a reference actually is Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2022-11-19 15:27 -0800
                Re: What a reference actually is Paavo Helde <eesnimi@osa.pri.ee> - 2022-11-20 01:28 +0200
      Re: What a reference actually is Paavo Helde <eesnimi@osa.pri.ee> - 2022-11-18 14:51 +0200
        Re: What a reference actually is JiiPee <kerrttuPoistaTama11@gmail.com> - 2022-11-18 18:32 +0200
        Re: What a reference actually is Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-11-21 11:56 +0000
  Re: What a reference actually is Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-11-17 19:27 +0100
  Re: What a reference actually is Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2022-11-19 17:10 +0000
    Re: What a reference actually is Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-11-21 11:59 +0000

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