C++ Is Not Perfect

I was taught very early, by a mother embarrassed by the overweening confidence of her youngest offspring, that if you're going to trumpet the good things to people, you'd also better be prepared to acknowledge the bad. Thanks, mum!

C++ is superb. It supports high-level concepts, including interface-based design, generics, polymorphism, self-describing software components, and meta-programming. It also does more than most languages in supporting fine-grained control of computers, by providing low-level features, including bitwise operations, pointers, and unions. By virtue of this huge spread of capabilities, coupled with its retaining a fundamental support of high efficiency, it can be justly described as the preeminent general purpose language of our time.^[1] Nevertheless it is not perfect—far from it—hence the title of this book.

^[1] Note that I'm not asserting that C++ is the best language in all specific problem domains. I wouldn't advise you to choose it over Prolog for writing Expert Systems, or over Python or Ruby for system scripts, or over Java for enterprise e-Commerce systems.

For very good reasons—some historical, some valid today—C++ is both a compromise [Stro1994] and a heterogeneous collection of unrelated, and sometimes incompatible, concepts. Hence it has a number of flaws. Some of these are minor; some of them are not so minor. Many come about as a result of its lineage. Others stem from the fact that it focuses—thankfully—on efficiency as a high priority. A few are likely fundamental restrictions to which any language would be subject. The most interesting set of problems comes about as a function of how complex and diverse a language it is becoming, things that no one could have anticipated.

This book meets this complex picture head on, with the attitude that the complexity can be tamed, and control wrested back to where it belongs, in the hands of the informed and experienced computing professional. The goal is to reduce the consternation and indecision that is experienced daily by software developers when using C++.

Imperfect C++ addresses problems that software developers encounter not as a result of inexperience or ignorance, but rather problems encountered by all members of the profession, from beginners through to even the most talented and experienced. These problems result partly from imperfections inherent in the language itself, and partly from common misapplications of the concepts that the language supports. They cause trouble for us all.

Imperfect C++ is not just a treatise on what is wrong with the language, along with a list of "do-nots"; there are plenty of excellent books available that take that approach. This book is about providing solutions to (most of) the flaws identified, and in so doing making the language even less "imperfect" than it is. It focuses on empowering developers: giving them important information regarding potential problem areas in the tools of their trade, and providing them with advice coupled with practical techniques and software technologies to enable them to avoid or manage these problems.