Bjarne Stroustrup on Safe C++: RAII vs Manual Resource Management
By
signa11
Crackling crust, pillowy middle. The kind of bagel that earns a second cup of coffee.
Summary
The article discusses Bjarne Stroustrup's presentation on Safe C++ programming, focusing on resource management pitfalls in C code and the RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) pattern in C++ as a solution. It analyzes a specific example where a file handle can leak if cleanup is missed, contrasts this with C++'s RAII approach using destructors for automatic cleanup, and explores broader implications for safe programming practices and language design.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledvoid f(const char* p) { FILE *f = fopen(p, "r"); // use f fclose(f); }
class File_handle { FILE *p; public: File_handle(const char *pp, const char *r) { p = fopen(pp, r); } ~File_handle() { fclose(p); } };
Any code that exits the function inside // use f that doesn't also call fclose results in a leak.
He shows this code to demonstrate how easy it is to miss resource cleanup.
He provides a C++ equivalent with RAII to avoid this footgun.
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