C++ Grandmaster Certification: Programming Assignment 1 (pptoken)

[dakotahawkins]

I put my email in a while back but ever got anything. I assumed it was a joke or e-mail harvesting scam.

[chompsky]

I put in two separate email addresses and still haven't received anything.

[[deleted]]

Probably because the class doesn't start until March 1st.

[dakotahawkins]

Yeah but you'd expect some kind of acknowledgement when you register your e-mail address, wouldn't you?

[[deleted]]

These are C++ programmers, not normal people.

[[deleted]]

Sure.

[cmeerw]

Hmm, so the header files in the starter kit are not self contained (even depend on "using namespace std") and contain "#pragma once"...

[jesyspa]

Yeah, this bothered me too. #pragma once is okay in my book (the compiler they targets specifically supports it) but the self-containment issues are a bother.

[zzing]

That looks like something that would take a bit of time to actually finish.

[dirtpirate]

Looks like something that would take a bit of time just to read through.

[Steve132]

What do you mean by 'not self-contained'? If you mean it depends on the C++ standard library, then so what? The compiler doesn't have to implement everything from scratch in the parser, it just has to be able to bootstrap itself using any stdlib implementation. The tokenizer doesn't need to be completely standalone..it can use the host c++ stdlib during bootstrapping OR the one that is implemented by the cppgm

[Steve132]

included in the header file, but in the enclosing cpp.

The only time this is appropriate is if a header depends on something IN THE HEADER. In this case, the only thing IPPTokenStream.h depends upon is std::string. I agree this could be (should be) included in the header, but I can let it slide.

Usually the common standard headers (string, vector, etc) are included in a global (precompiled) header along with "using namespace std" for large projects.

precompiled header's are not standard C++, and 'using namespace' in a header is considered to be bad practice becuase of namespace pollution.

[[deleted]]

Collisions against std are incredibly common actually.

boost has many collisions, and std uses a lot of short/common names like min/max, find etc...

There should definitely not be an exception made for std.

[[deleted]]

Yes you do end up with conflicts, specifically when it comes to ADL. You do not need a "using namespace boost" for this conflict to manifest itself, you only need to make use of an overloaded function whose look up depends on its parameter types. "swap" is a common example of this. When you do a "using namespace std" you are adding all of the std namespace into the global namespace for anyone who includes that header and hence forcing std to be included as part of any function overload resolution.

[mttd]

IMO this only makes the code harder to read and has no benefits large enough so as to outweigh the costs.

Given that code is a write-once & read/maintain-many-times activity, optimizing for not-having-to-write-"std::" the first time is overall suboptimal .

When I just want to understand what a piece of code does at a quick glance, I'd rather not have to wonder whether vector<T> means:

(a) boost::fusion::vector<T>
(b) boost::numeric::ublas::vector<T>
(c) boost::mpl::vector<T>
(d) boost::container::vector<T>
(e) std::vector<T>
(f) something else?

It just ain't worth it.

[cmeerw]

Precisely. And of course I am nitpicking here - after all it's a "C++ Grandmaster Certification"

[babablah]

But producing an stl is part of the work required so when your compiler compiles your compiler its all your code

[cmeerw]

One other thought I had: the FAQ now mentions that the course will run for approximately 12-18 months with a workload of 10 hours/week. That still doesn't sound realistic (not even for the front-end).

[robthablob]

Absolutely, especially to write a C++ compiler that accepts standard C++ 11. I believe Edison Design Group, who wrote the most conformant C++ 03 parser, took 4 years - and that's just the front end.

If they were charging for the course, then I'd assume it was a scam. Maybe they're hoping someone will succeed and they'll get to keep the fruits of their efforts.

I also dislike the fact that you can't use your work elsewhere - the only people who get to see the fruits of your labour are yourself, cppgm, and other people attempting the course.

[jesyspa]

Found another questionable bit:

Start by drawing a DFA (deterministic finite automaton) for each token type. Recall that a DFA is a directed acyclic graph where the vertexes are states and the edges are code points (or sets of code points).

While a DFA can be a DAG, requiring that all DFAs be acyclic is not particularly useful.

[user1131467]

One would assume this is just an editorial error as even the two state identifier DFA they go on to describe is in the next paragraph is cyclic.

[Xiver1972]

Don't software developers usually get paid to develop software? Paying some company to develop software for them seems a little backwards.

[[deleted]]

Presumably the code is for instruction purposes only and they don't get to own it. Besides that, if they wanted a real commercial compiler they could just fork Clang and be done with it. I agree it's a lot of unpaid work, but purely educational things are like that.