The danger of "language" in programming (2009)

Re:The danger of "language" in programming (2009) by stonemetal on Friday December 27, 2013 @04:10PM (#6972629)

This is only partially true. A C++ reference can outlive the object it references.

I didn't mean to imply that it couldn't, just that by using a reference instead of a pointer you are disclaiming responsibility for lifetime management of the referenced item since you can not delete a reference.

C++ being what it is, one can ref = *(new object());, delete &ref;, but the intention you are expressing by using a reference is more hands off in nature. It isn't retargetable, no built-in ability to new\delete, etc.

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Re:The danger of "language" in programming (2009) by catnaroek on Friday December 27, 2013 @04:36PM (#6972729)

Manually making sure a reference does not outlive the referenced object (or, at least, that a reference is not used after the object has been destroyed) looks pretty much like "lifetime management" to me. What C++ affords you is merely ownership management.

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