Smart pointers in C++ are nice, yet fraught with irregularities. One is the inability to create a proper clone function. This requires a feature called covariant return types, which C++ supports, but […]
Rejuvenating the ternary conditional with optionals
I previously contemplated elimination of the ternary conditional operator, but now I have a solution that retains and improves it. My biggest concern here is having a single unifying conditional logic. I […]
Do we need the conditional ternary operator ?:
I’m reconsidering the necessity of the conditional ternary operator in Leaf. I’m having troubles coming up with a comfortable, flexible, and unambiguous syntax. The traditional short ‘cond ? true_value : false_value’ syntax […]
Why a ‘constexpr’ is just a return statement
A question recently asked why a ‘constexpr’ function in C++ may comprise only a return statement. It’s a good question. On quick glance the restriction seems somewhat arbitrary, and indeed quite limiting. […]
Overloading the broken universal reference ‘T&&’
C++11 introduced a perfect forwarding mechanism for template parameters. The key part is the ability for a template parameter to match any input without any implicit conversion. This is done using the […]
How to catch a “return” statement
Does ‘return’ always cause a function to return? Surprisingly the answer is “no”. Indeed there are situations in which ‘break’ may not always break from a loop, and ‘goto’ may no go […]
1/2 Should Not Equal Zero
There’s something wrong when a language allows 1/2 to equal 0. It’s easy to understand why this happens, and perhaps it’s even easy to forgive the limitations of C. Nonetheless it’s irksome […]
Why do we need pointers/references?
Below I’ve tried to catalog some of the typical uses of references in programming. My aim is to clarify the role references play in a language to help me decide how they […]
Parsing an exact decimal value using GMP
For Leaf, I need to parse decimal numbers to retain the exact value of the input without rounding. I assumed such a library would exist in C++, but nothing I found handled […]
Leaf: Simple type conversions
One of the problems with C++ is the way it handles type conversion. It inherits a lot of implicit conversion from C and then adds on additional conversions. The problem with all […]
Leaf: Preserving “lvalue” status
I’ve been reworking how I handle basic type conversion in Leaf. This is a mechanism which allows implicit conversion of simple types. As part of this effort I had to refactor how […]
What is a System Language?
Not all languages are made with the same purpose in mind. When it comes to designing a new language like Leaf, it’s important to choose what type of language it will be. […]
Immutable Values and Invariant Names
Programmers don’t usually spend a lot of time thinking carefully about names and values. As long as we follow a few basic rules, our code will generally behave as expected. As I […]
Antiquated Error Handling: abort/exit
The abort function is a remnant of old programming practices, and it pains me to see it in modern software. While it’s great that a program detects an error, calling abort is […]
