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Design speed and reusability: c vs. c++

Succinct · 2001-11-07T21:56:03

I work in a small c++ shop. The office is is purely a development site. There are only programmers there, and the closest form of middle or upper management is in New York (from Pittsburgh, PA). We have a small crew - 7 programmers, 5 testers, an engineer, and a technical writer, and the environment is very non-corporate and informal. Being that my office is very informal, we don't have official "design phases" and "design documents" (much to my dismay), unless we're working on a contract which requires them, such as miltary contracts, of which we have a few per year. Because of this, many of the projects we work on are done in a "from the seat of your pants" kind of way. The lead programmer sits down with whomever is going to be tasked to handle a particular project, gives the lesser programmer some ideas as to how he wants the functionality of the program to be, who works on what parts, a small amount of coding suggetions, and the rest of it is up to the lesser programmers. This is nice and all, that we basically get to do our own thing for each individual part, but it can really be hard sometimes, mainly because of the fact that some of the programmers are a little older and are stubbornly locked in their own coding styles and methodologies, even if it is not very intuitive for anyone else to look at and/or use. All of the programmers here use c++, but there are many different interpretations of just what "c++" is. Most of the guys at work, including the boss, are old-school c proponents. They look at c++ as being a small extension to c, and still use c style programming when they can, as often as they can. I'm a c++ aficionado, and look at c++ as being basically a different language from c. Now, here's my boggle. Because we all are given the room to design our programs ourselves, we all go about it the way we've found most successful - the other guys go about it in a fairly procedural-relational, c way, while I go about it in a fairly object oriented, c++ way. I try to write modular code, and make it reusable when I feel it will be reused eventually. They write poorly structured c code, lots of times using brute force (I saw a 10k line switch statement and a 5k line function) and code duplication, small, indescript variable names, variable names that have nothing to do with the program, such as girlfriend's names and what-not, and unnamed constants all over the place. Basically all of the things you might read about in "Code Complete", by Steve McConnell, that you're not supposed to do. The thing is, they get done a lot faster than me. A lot. Now, I feel that, in the long run, I'll be better off, because I'll have a code base of reuseable, modular objects. But until then, I feel like I'm behind in the game. Heh, another problem is that these guys don't like to interface with my objects, even when I make them as simple as possible. Much simpler than the schite they write. A perfect example is the difference between the OpenGL code I write and the code they write. The work we do is not very graphics intensive. We do some neat things with graphics, but it doesn't necessarily have to be real time, such as in a 3d game. Most of the objects are fairly static, only changing orientations and position. Because of this, I have my OpenGL client/server model classed out with a very small interface, only 5 main methods or so. To use OpenGL with my objects you only need to create a server object, attach it to a particular hwnd (via a single method call), create the object you want to render, and attach it to the server (again, a single method call). New objects are derived from a base object and override a single method that describes the object in OpenGL statements. New render objects generally consist of a single method, and that is all they need to be completely incorporated into the larger projects. When they're using OpenGL, the code is different every time, it jumps all around the application in various stages of initialization, execution, and shutdown, and is hell to trace through. They don't perform any clean-up or shutdown, and generally write a jumbled bunch of indecipherable junk that is so tightly coupled with every other part of the application that changing around any lines of code could render the entire project useless. And it's not just me who feels this way. Everyone feels the same about everyone else's code - they just can't figure it out without taking a long time to go though it themselves or having the original author go though it with them. This is except for my code, which everyone agrees is easy to read, but because it's more object oriented, they don't like to look at it. Should I conform to their method? Should I start writing sloppy code that, by way of brute force, is completed more quickly, or should I continue to take longer writing more modular, reusable code? If I ever want to get another job, I'd better keep writing modular code, but I'll probably take some heat here while I do it. I've already been "scolded" by the boss for my coding techniques, such as using "const", "new" instead of "malloc" and "calloc", and using "string" or "AnsiString" (a borland specifice string class) instead of "char*". My boss straight up told me he doesn't like me using const objects. He also doesn't like me using interfaces. He feels that I should just make all member data public so it can be directly accessed... WHAT THE HECK!? I AM IN CODING HELL! Any comments or suggestions? Please? Thank you for your bandwidth, -- Succinct Edited by - Succinct on November 2, 2001 12:15:20 PM

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Succinct November 02, 2001 11:05 AM

33 comments, last by Succinct 22 years, 5 months ago

Shannon Barber

1,684

November 07, 2001 06:42 PM

quote:
Dont delete call the destructor automatically??
Why do this.... myClass->~mYClass()???

It''s a special case for when you use placement new (which is how you construct an object in RAM allocated by malloc)

Magmai Kai Holmlor
- Not For Rent

- The trade-off between price and quality does not exist in Japan. Rather, the idea that high quality brings on cost reduction is widely accepted.-- Tajima & Matsubara

Void

126

November 07, 2001 08:43 PM

You shouldn''t use malloc on classes cause it may fail if there are inheritance and other C++ things.

The new does a lot of things than malloc.

Dactylos

122

November 07, 2001 09:14 PM

quote:Original post by Void
You shouldn't use malloc on classes cause it may fail if there are inheritance and other C++ things.

The new does a lot of things than malloc.

Not really, new allocates memory, then calls the constructor. The constructor is the piece of code responsible for setting up the object properly. This includes calling the constructors of base-classes, initializing the v-table if appropriate, etc. All the code to do this is automatically inserted by the compiler in every constructor.

So allocating memory with malloc, and then using placement-new to construct it is perfectly valid (in fact that's the whole point of having a placement-new).

Even if I'm wrong and new does do other things as well, then placement-new will still do it for you.

I know, this is very off-topic. Sorry.

Edited by - Dactylos on November 7, 2001 10:21:48 PM

hotdot

122

November 07, 2001 09:37 PM

Hey, i for myself had the same problems at work, what i simply did is to stick with the "local policies", what you do at work is simply to make the boss make more cash, from what i have read dont fall into the traps of making like the other programmers though. Do not "slop" your code, one thing of the outmost importance is to make sure you can be in the feet of another coder who would work with your stuff. Remember that if you would ever go work somewhere else, they will surely miss the fact that everything you have done is "WELL" coded and "UNDERSTANDABLE". I dont know how much time i wasted working on poorly written software trying to figure out what the guy was thinking about back then ! Comment your code also ( im sure you already do it). But what do you know there is sooooooo much hot headed ultra-hot-headed-optimized-holier-than-thou coders in this world that 90% of these peeps forget these basic rules. sorry it was too much to retain to myself

. Remember code Object oriented it is THE EVOLUTION.

May the code be with us !

May the code be with us !

hotdot

122

November 07, 2001 09:56 PM

oh , btw nice to see that ppl can get easily a job, i have a paper since last may and ive been thrown out of a company last october ( project fund problems), its really hard to get a job for a programmer here in canada, even with good college education they ask for ppl with 2-3 year exp. or university. Im a bit desperate to become only junior, but it seems too much to ask. Hell i did a motion-tracking software wich 3 other ppl where not able to do .... me think not me the problem. Sorry the lack of money is making me crazy...

May the code be with us !

May the code be with us !

Design speed and reusability: c vs. c++

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