-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday 20 October 2009, Peter Dimov wrote:
Beman Dawes wrote:
A POSIX sub-group is looking at C++ bindings for POSIX.
They are talking about a filesystem library binding at least loosely based on Boost.System, Boost.Filesystem, and C++ TR2.
In looking at http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2009/n2838.html, "Library Support for Hybrid Error Handling (Rev 2)", they are concerned about specifying hybrid error handling like this:
void f(error_code& ec=throws());
They would rather see it specified like this:
void f(error_code* ec=0);
...
Regardless, I'd like to hear Boosters views on the two interfaces above. Which do you prefer? Why?
I prefer the pointer form, because it's idiomatic. The reference form is an invention.
I agree. I've never heard of a null reference in C++ before reading the original post. I thought one of the selling points of references was they can't be null. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkrd3LMACgkQ5vihyNWuA4UnPwCg1fbhc/bdPgUuANv+S3uW4n10 H/IAn1sMfUgjMtA5UYlBnbb3iYjjbQ6Q =vtTB -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----