-----Original Message-----
From: Likai Liu
To: linux-audio-dev(a)music.columbia.edu
Sent: 10/19/02 1:42 PM
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] soft synth as a plugin
STEFFL, ERIK (SBCSI) wrote:
erm,
sorry, but why not use pointers
it's dangerous... null pointers, memory leaks etc. tendency is not to
use
pointers unless absolutely neccessary...
References in C++ are just pointers in a sugared form. Actually they are
EVERYTHING in ALL computer languages is just sugar, all these languages
(the turing complete ones) are same, apart from syntactic sugar. so your
statement doesn't really say anything.
the same thing in a slightly different syntax. There
is no memory safety
in C/C++, so you end up having the same risks no matter you use pointers
no you don't. just because it's still risky doesn't mean it is the SAME.
C++ is quite unsafe as far as memory management goes but certain practices
can lead to memory mismanagement much easier - one of the practices that can
help is using references instead of pointers.
when using references it's quite hard (=harder then when using pointers)
to:
free already free-ed memory
create NULL reference
have a memory leak
or references. The difference of the performance
probably lies in the
fact that the compiler understands your code better with references,
hence it can do better optimizations. My guess is that references are
easier to optimize against because you don't do pointer arithmetics and
pointer type-casting on references.
I don't believe there is performance difference. is there anything that
suggests there is?
erik