Leandro Lucarella wrote: > About values vs. reference semantics, I think reference is the best. > Containers usually are big, and you don't want to copy them arround. > I find myself using lots of references to pass containers arround in C++ > and almost never use the copy() method of Python containers, so based on > *my* experience, I'd say that reference as the default is the best > approach.
I don't think the choice of reference vs value semantics has *anything* to do with how often something is copied. To me, the relevant questions are: - Do you have strict ownership relationships? (Usually you do.) - Do you want to avoid long-distance bugs? (Yes you do, always.) Orthogonal question: does copying *ever* make sense: - If yes, provide a copy operation. - If no, prevent copying. -- Rainer Deyke - rain...@eldwood.com
