On 06/02/2015 11:56 PM, Daniel Holbert wrote:
On 06/02/2015 12:58 PM, smaug wrote:
So, I'd like to understand why people think 'auto' is a good thing to use.
(bz mentioned it having some use inside bindings' codegenerator, and
sure, I can see that being rather
valid case.)
One common "auto" usage I've seen is for storing the result of a
static_cast<>. In this scenario, it lets you avoid repeating yourself
and makes for more concise code.
It still hurts readability.
Whenever a variable is declared using auto as type, it forces reader to read
the part after '='.
So, when reading code below some "auto foo = ...", in order to check again the
type of foo, one needs to
read the "= ..." part.
I don't think there's much danger of
fragility in this scenario (unlike your refcounting example), nor is
there any need for a reviewer/code-skimmer to do research to find out
the type -- it's still right there in front of you. (it's just not
repeated twice)
For example:
auto concretePtr = static_cast<ReallyLongTypeName*>(abstractPtr);
Nice & concise (particularly if the type name is namespaced or otherwise
really long). Though it perhaps takes a little getting used to.
(I agree that mixing auto with smart pointers sounds like a recipe for
fragility & disaster.)
~Daniel
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